This is Not MythoMagic
by RockyGlenn
Summary: An Original story based in the Hunter-verse I created in my previous story link in my profile . A newcomer to camp becomes much more important, but no god is willing to claim him. Will be a series with all OCs with a great prophecy and everything. Be sure to read and review. Story may change based on popular opinions.
1. Chapter 1

After few months of this nonsense, I never knew how much I would miss my level 41 warrior. At least when he got hurt, he just paid and got rezzed and then everything was fine. No trip to the infirmary. No bandages and magic and all that stuff. What was this nonsense? Well, I'll get to that later. My level 41 Warrior is actually where this story starts. Well, not really, but that's where it's going to start.

"No! What are you doing!" I yelled into my headset, taking a swig of Mountain Dew Pitch Black. "This game is so stupid!" As I watched my warrior fall in the world of MythoMagic Online, I let my head fall with a _thunk_ onto my desk.

"You do realize it's just a game, right?" Bradley, the magic user of the group said to me, his voice crackling through the headset. I was offended almost. I know I shouldn't have been, but it was all too much.

"I now have to pay the fine, rez, get back through this godforsaken dungeon, catch up with you guys, build up my DPS. We could have been okay if someone had taken teleport, BRADLEY!" I shouted, picking my head back up. "_I want Prixius to be a good fighter!" _I said mockingly. "_Prixius needs another knife! Prixius should have another personal protection spell!_ You know what Prixius needs! Teleport! Or a Freaking heal spell! Even a child of Hermes can chance a heal spell! You have nothing!"

"Dude…Calm down." Bradley said with a sigh.

"Come on, BRADLEY!" I smiled a little as Hayden chimed in. She was always good at yelling at Bradley. "Agatha has a replenishing healing draught! And I do more damage than you! And I can take more damage than you!"

"What do we even keep you here for? Aggie can increase luck! Luck, BRADLEY! LUCK!" I yelled into the mic, clenching my fists in frustration.

"Guys, relax. If it weren't for me you guys wouldn't have nearly enough stamina. Nor would you be as fast." Bradley said with a chuckle. "Petrocles would be long dead if it weren't for Prixius." I looked at him and sighed, running my hand through my and letting it fall in front of my face, a curtain of dirty blonde hair hiding my eyes.

"Bradley, I just…I can't even talk to you right now. I…ugh." I downed the rest of my Mountain Dew and sighed. "AFK." I said quickly, letting them know that I wasn't there, not like it mattered anyway. I stood up from my chair, feeling the tug of my headset, and took it off, placing it on my keyboard. "It's just a game…" I said in Bradley's nasally voice. I left the room and climbed downstairs to see my mom coming up, her shoulders brushing along the walls of the narrow hallway.

"Oh, hey there, kiddo." She said in her rough voice, deepened by a jab combo to the throat in her match against Foreman in 1999. _It was my first fight and I beat her to the ground._ She had told him many times in her 6 packs a day voice. "You practicing those boxing moves I taught you?" She said, taking a couple impromptu jabs in the air.

"Hey, mom." I said with a small wave as we met in the middle of the stairs, I, wanting to go down and her, not realizing my intent. "Can you uh…" I gestured with my cup, not feeling comfortable with telling my mom what to do, especially when she was back in her fighting shape.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." She said with a smile as she backed out of the stairway into the large room, covered in her titles. _Debra 'the destroyer' Everett_. They read in big blocky letters with gold surrounding them on a belt that read _'World Heavyweight Champion Women's division 2002'. _I always thought they were kind of silly, but her house her rules or something like that. "So, I was going to go talk to you." She said in her raspy voice. I walked into the kitchen and set down my cup before going to the fridge.

"What about? I'm pretty sure I've heard all of the stories about your boxing years about 10 times, so I hope it's not that." I said as I pulled out the 2 liter of Mountain Dew, walking back over to my cup. "I could probably quote them now, so…"

"No." My mom said with a smile as she smacked my arm, not realizing how much that hurt. "Well, I noticed there was a football game tonight and you should go. It'd be fun. You'd get to know people and stuff." I paused for a moment and looked up at her, an eyebrow raised.

"Mom, I've no friends at Crefeld. I didn't have friends back in Lansing or in St. Louis." I nodded and took a sip out of the bottle, finishing it off. "Or in Boston or either time in Colorado Springs. I'm just not the type of person who makes friends."

"Well, maybe it's because you don't go to football games." She said, running her fingers through her hair and watched with narrowed eyes as I crushed the bottle and threw it into the recycling.

"So, the reason that I have been a social outcast for all 8 years of my schooling, isn't because of my ADHD and mild dyslexia, but because I don't go to football games?" I asked, finding her logic absent in her argument. My mom had a tendency to do that. It was endearing sometimes, but a lot of the time it was just annoying.

"Come on, Peter." She said with a chuckle. "Look, if anyone bullies you then just use the moves I taught you. You know how to defend yourself. Just put it to good use." She said, taking a deep breath. I looked her in the eye. I knew I was going to regret going and knowing what I do now I regret it even more.

"Okay…" I said, feeling defeated. "Let me get some clothes on and then you can drive me over." I ran my fingers through my hair and looked down at my gigantic cup of Mountain Dew. "I already crushed the…" I sighed and grabbed it, biting the lip of it in my teeth as I closed the fridge and walked back into the living room.

"I promise you're going to have fun, Peter." My mom said, slapping me on the back. My mom's hand felt like a frying pan and her big muscled body stood about a foot over me and my slender frame. It's not that I was a stick figure, but I didn't have much muscle on my bones.

"We'll see." I said before taking a drink and reaching my room, closing the door behind me with my foot.

"Peter!" I glanced over at the voice and realized that I was still AFK. I quickly hurried over, taking another sip, determined to finish the drink before I left no matter how badly I would have to take a leak at the game.

"What? What happened?" I asked, slipping my headset back on.

"Thank goodness! Look, Peter. We're all dead and you're the only one with enough money to get a rez for all of us, so rez and then we'll finish this up." Bradley explained with a sigh of relief. I felt bad initially, but that soon turned into spite when I realized why I left in the first place. I laughed a little and took another drink.

"Sorry, guys." I said with a grin. "I've gotta go. You can figure it out. Maybe next time someone will learn how to heal, BRADLEY." I said bitterly into the microphone.

"Dammit, BRADLEY!" Hayden started before I exited the game and shut off my headset, leaving it on my keyboard with my computer asleep. I stood back up and finished the rest of my drink, some of the soda dripping down the sides of my mouth and onto my shirt. I didn't care. I was going to change anyway. I pulled off my shirt, wiping my mouth with it then throwing it in the general vicinity of my closet where my hamper rested. I pulled on my 'You have died of dysentery' shirt and smoothed out some of the wrinkles. I quickly checked my hair in the mirror and grabbed my converse that had the TARDIS drawn on them. I put them on the walked out, meeting my mother in the stairs again. "We've got to stop meeting like this, mom." I said with a smile when I realized she was forcing me to go to a football game where I would more than likely stand around or play Angry Birds until it was over and then get bullied until she picked me up. She scoffed and walked back down into the living room again.

"Okay. You ready to go?" She asked, twirling her keys on her fingers. I reluctantly nodded, but I still wasn't ready. Is it really possible to be perfectly ready for something you don't want to do? We left the house and walked to the garage. I told her to take the Maserati, but she insisted on the Prius. Because I had some credibility left that she wanted to get rid of. We got in and she drove, but there wasn't much else. She reminded me of some fighting techniques at first, but that quickly became her telling me how she took down Bobbi Jo Livingston in the second round. Which made it the 8th time I had heard that story. She pulled up to the stadium and I looked at her. I was hoping that she might turn around and take me home, but that didn't happen. "Bye, sweetie. Here's some money. Have fun!" She said, practically pushing me out of the car and then driving off. I sighed and looked around as several people looked at me like I was from a different planet. It was summer. Why did I have to spend time with people from school? Since I went to a special school they provide sports programs during the summer so it is not a distraction during the year. I walked to the ticket booth and bought a ticket and entered the stadium. Thankfully I showed up late, so I missed some of it.

"Crefeld! Crefeld! Go team! Go!" I looked over at the cheerleaders and saw the mascot. Freddy the Faun. Mascot for the Crefeld School the home of the fighting Fauns. The Crefeld School didn't have a football team, but they had a club team that was closely affiliated with the school. The school however, due to budget cuts and the 'discouraging nature of competitive activity,' Crefeld did not support any sports teams.

"We're going to ma-a-a-ake the competition wee-ee-ee-p!" Freddy cried out, being responded by a roar of laughter and applause. Freddy Lipton. Freddy and I had seen a good share of the bullying. Who knew being the mascot wasn't a perfect bully-proof job? There was a flag and a timeout was called. The cheerleaders took the field. My eyes fell on her. Like they always did. Lindsey Blackman. A mane of beautiful blonde hair tied up into a ponytail for the uniform. Tanned skin and perfectly whitened and straightened teeth, making her an image of beauty. In choir. On the cheerleading squad. Plays volleyball. Incredibly intelligent. It's a shame that I'm in love with her. I have been since I was born here and we grew up together. I was four when we moved and as much as I wanted her to come with she had to stay. We visited Philadelphia a few times and we caught up once or twice, but for the most part we're no longer friends. Who knows? Maybe it's just hero worship. She was dating Jock number 3 and I was far off of the list of desirables.

"Everett, who said you were allowed to show up here?" I turned to see the boy genius Eli Morris looking down at me. He was as dumb as rocks and other freshman had been recruited to do his homework on more than one occasion.

"I'm just watching the game, meatheads. Please…pay me no mind like you usually do." I said, patting him on the shoulder. I knew it wasn't smart to antagonize them, but I didn't want to be here.

"We saw your mommy drop you off here." Robert, Eli's friend and partner in stupidity, said with a laugh.

"Oh, Robert. Eli let you take his balls out of your mouth long enough to speak." I said with a scoff. I could feel my face getting hot, but I wasn't going to let these bullies get a rise out of me. "That's precious."

"Hey, shut up, Everett!" Eli said, poking me in the chest. I took a deep breath and clenched my fists, looking up at him through my hair. "Obviously, we don't want you here. No one wants you here."

"We have something in common. I don't want me here either." I said with a wry laugh before turning back to the game. I hoped that would be the end of it. I was hoping that he would leave it at that and no one would get hurt. They didn't feel the same way.

"Then how about you give that dyke mom of yours a call?" Eli said with a laugh. I turned around and it felt like my entire body was on fire. I wanted to kill them. I wanted to rip their throats out. I might not like my mother, but she's my mother and a damn good one at that. No one is going to talk about her like that. I was blinded by rage for a minute and in that minute I found myself standing over Robert's unconscious body, my hand in a fist, his nose in a smear on his face and my fist and the ground and his shirt. Eli grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up. "I'm gonna kill you, Everett!" He shouted, raising his fist.

"I…hurt your…your boyfriend, didn't I?" I wheezed, grabbing the hand around my neck and trying to pull it off.

"Why are you even alive, Everett?" He shouted into my face. I felt stronger and stronger and faster and I felt my body getting hot again. It was on fire. Eli shouted and let go of me, screaming in pain. He clutched his hand and looked at me like I had just lit him on fire. He cursed and fell to his knees, holding his hand as Security descended upon us. I knew I shouldn't have gone to this football game.

"All three of you come with me!" The security guard with a nametag that read Julian said, grabbing Eli and I by our arms. Some other guy grabbed Robert and hauled him away. I scoffed as he dragged me away and I looked up to see Lindsey looking at me. The look on her face was weird. Like she was concerned, but trying not to show too much interest. Julian brought us to a room in the actual building at one end of the stadium. I glanced over at Eli who was still clutching his hand and crying like a little girl. I didn't even do anything. "I found these two fighting out by the track. There was a third one, but Jim carried him to get him cleaned up."

Eli got picked up and apparently taken to the hospital. I wasn't sure why, but he was complaining about his hand. He cried the entire way out, which was a little victory for me, but I quickly realized how much Monday was going to suck. It took my mom some extra time to get here. I don't know if she refused to believe that I actually got into a fight or if she was celebrating, but her phone cell was about 10 minutes longer than the one to Eli's mom. Either way, she was stonefaced when she came to pick me up.

"I cannot believe you, young man. Getting into fights." She grabbed my ear, but I could tell she wasn't pulling it as hard as she could have been. "I will be sure to give him a stern talking to, sir. Thanks for calling me promptly. Come with me, Peter." She said to the chief security officer. He kept me in his office, called my mom, and then proceeded to take a nap, his feet up on his desk and his hat over his eyes. I was a little shocked honestly at how bad security was, but I wanted to get out of there, so I stayed.

"Yes, ma'am." I said, rolling my eyes a little as she finally released my ear. I followed her out of the room and out of the building. I glanced out at the game just as the opposing team's quarterback got sacked so hard his helmet flew off. I took a mental note to never play football. I imagined my head flying off and landing on the sidelines just like that helmet did. "Mom, I didn't mean to—"

"You _have_ been listening!" She said, wrapping me up in a bonecrushing hug. "All I wanted was for you to stand up for yourself, sweetie." I was a little surprised, but I reluctantly patted her back and she released me, air rushing back into my lungs.

"I uh…thanks, I guess." I said, clearing my throat a little. I followed her and got in when we finally reached the car again.

"So what was it like?" She asked, seeming a little excited that her son, knocked someone out and hospitalized another person. I looked at her like she was crazy.

"I…Good, I guess. Those guys had it coming, honestly." I said with a nod. It felt good to punch Robert in the face. That little lapdog was getting on everyone's nerves. What I didn't know what to think about was Eli's hand. He held it like he had set it on a hot burner or that he had his skin flayed off. I didn't do anything or at least I didn't think I did anything, but it made me worry a little. "Hey, mom?"

"What is it, Peter?" She said, smiling over at me. I took a deep breath and cleared my throat.

"I put Eli in the hospital, but it uh…it was weird." I shook my head a little as I envisioned him screaming and holding his hand. "It looked like I burned his hand or something. I'm just imagining things, right?" I looked over at her and she seemed to think it over. It was a little worrisome how long she thought about it. It's not a difficult question. At least I didn't think so.

"Maybe you just don't know your own strength." She said, giving me a little wink out of the corner of her eye. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Peter. It's not like you can…control fire or something. Just relax."


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of the car ride home was fairly uneventful. I should have known that my mom would be completely fine with me getting into a fight, but it was a little weird still. I think she wanted me to actually show an interest in something other than a video game and to her, fighting was an interest and not a bad habit like other, normal parents. She eventually pulled into the garage under our house and parked, shutting off the car.

"Well, it's getting late, so I am going to go to bed, I think." She yawned a little and cleared her throat, the muscles in her neck flexing. "Good night, sweetie." She said before kissing me on the forehead then heading upstairs out of the garage and to her bedroom to the left. I looked around at the cars for a little while before heading upstairs to the living room. I headed upstairs to my room and found the login screen for MythoMagic Online on my computer monitor.

"I wonder if they're still on…" I said, sitting down in my desk chair and quickly signing into my account, I entered the game as Petrocles and waited for it to load up as I kicked off my shoes, tossing them to the corner of my room. I yawned a little and when my character came into the picture. He was still dead and Prixius and Agatha were standing around him. I heard the faint hum of talking from my headset next to my keyboard and with a little sigh I slipped my headset over my head.

"…Completely stupid. We're trying to whittle down the numbers, Bradley. Why would you expend seventy percent of your endurance to go up against a bunch of hellhounds?"

"They're buffs, Hayden. I can deal more damage and take more damage when I'm fully buffed."

"No, Bradley. You're going to die anyway. That's the point. We're killing time for Peter to come back and draw agro and then we'll finish this godsforsaken dungeon."

"Time is about the only thing you're killing." I said with a chuckle. "How'd you guys rez?"

"Well, I had enough money to bring myself back and then I sold some enchanted weapons and stuff to bring Agatha back and then some."

"Then we took turns fighting the skeleton warriors." Hayden cleared her throat. "We haven't really gotten much done."

"Well, let's rock this dungeon then." I said with a nod. I quickly rezzed Petrocles and rode my Pegasus back to the dungeon entrance.

"Where'd you go?" Hayden asked after a moment once I caught up with them.

"Oh, my mom had me go to a football game." I said with a sigh. "I never really know why."

"It's Spring. Football is in Fall." Hayden said, pausing a moment to direct her character into another group of Skeletons.

"My school doesn't have sports teams, but the community, if you can call it that, started a club team, so their kids can still get scholarships. It makes our sports schedules a little backwards."

"When did it start?"

"Six-thirty, I think."

"Well, unless one team didn't show up, why are you here?" Bradley asked.

"I just…I got into a fight, so I came home early."

"You got into a fight? Like…a fight, fight?"

"No, it was a battle of rhetoric. It was so graphic that we were sent home early."

"…really?"

"No, Bradley. I punched a guy in the face and then he pushed me onto the field and it was…a bit of a mess." I sighed a little bit and grabbed my cup to find it empty. I sighed again then turned back to the screen. For some reason I found myself thinking about the fight. Not the fight itself, but what happened afterward. Where I put

"Hayden is Agatha's draught up?" Bradley asked, breaking me out of my thoughts

"Is your health low again, Bradley?" Hayden said with a sigh. "You're wearing armor, right? And using weapons? Prixius isn't just prancing in there and bashing the skeleton warriors shields with his face?"

"I caught some agro. Leave me alone." There was a pause for a long moment when Hayden finally cleared her throat.

"Peter? Nothing?" I shook myself again and finished off the last warrior with a shield bash.

"Sorry. Just…thinking about something." I said quietly.

"You don't have to apologize."

"Shush. You okay, Peter?"

"Yeah. I just…had something weird happen at the football game." I said, taking a deep breath. "It's probably nothing. I just kind of…burned this guy."

"So, it was an argument."

"Don't be stupid, Bradley." I said, rolling my eyes. "No, I seriously burned him. His hand. He held my by the throat and I grabbed his hand and I got really angry and then…I burned him. I don't know how."

"Do you mean burned burned him? Like hot fire melt skin blister heat burn?"

"Yeah! I don't know. He let me go and backed away. He was covering it, but I could tell his hand was burned."

"Are you okay?" Hayden asked. The game had been pretty much placed on the side at this point.

"Sure. I'm fine. Surprisingly, I think I won that fight." I said with a laugh. "I just don't know how if I should be going to school tomorrow or if I should be research exorcism rituals."

"Could be witchcraft." Bradley said. "Or demon possession. Maybe, just random combustion."

"I was going to make an appearance-hot joke, but you just kind of sucked the fun out of the room, Bradley."

"Maybe, you're a demigod. Like in the game!" Bradley said with a laugh. "Hephaestus or Ares. Control of fire usually goes to those two."

"Well, I highly doubt that."

"What do you know about your dad?" Hayden asked, but I didn't really have an answer. Ever since I found out that my dad was 'not in the picture' I didn't really care to know anything about him. My mom had offered to tell me how she met him, but I just really didn't care to hear it. The information genuinely had no appeal to me. I had spent 14 years living with my mother. I accepted it a long time ago.

"Umm…Nothing." I said quietly.

"Well, the odds that he's an Ancient Greek deity are virtually non-existent anyway." I nodded a little, but the talk of my father had got me thinking.

"Hey, you know, I think I'm going to go to bed. We can pick this up tomorrow, yeah?"

"Good night, Peter." They said. I logged off and put my headset on my keyboard. I took a moment and shut down my computer then pushed my chair away from my desk. I stood then changed into a pair of athletic shorts then got into bed. As I laid in bed, I battled with my head to let me fall asleep, but it wasn't easy. I was in bed for about an hour before I fell asleep.

The next morning was just like any other. I woke up, got dressed, slipped on a pair of triforce Vans, then headed downstairs for my typical morning pleasantries and cereal combination. My mom wasn't sitting at the counter like she usually was, but she'd probably be down soon. I couldn't drive. I walked to the cabinet and poured myself a bowl of Shredded Wheat. I walked to the fridge and grabbed the milk, stretching a little as I returned to my bowl.

"You know, typically the old person in the family eats that cereal." I finished pouring the milk and looked up as my mom walked into the room. "I really just buy it so that our cabinet looks somewhat intelligent." I shrugged and grabbed a spoon out of the drawer then sat down on the opposite counter next to the fridge.

"I don't mind it. It doesn't really turn into a giant clump of marshmallow and mush when you pour milk on it." I said, taking a bite. My mom walked over to the cabinet and retrieved the Lucky Charms. "I see you feel differently." I said with a chuckle.

"Well someone has to eat the good cereal." She said before stepping toward me and kissing me on the forehead. "Good morning, by the way."

"Morning." I responded, smiling at her a moment. There was a long pause as I ate my cereal. It wasn't awkward or anything, but it was definitely there. I was about half-done with my cereal when I set my bowl down and looked at my mother. I had my dad on my mind from last night and school was useless if I didn't take care of it now. Not that it was very useful anyway. "Mom, tell me about my dad." I said with a sigh. She looked up at me a little surprised and took a sip of orange juice to wash down her cereal.

"Well," she started, clearing her throat. "It was the night after my fight with Theresa Hernandez. I lost in the scorecards, but I won that fight. Anyways, I was young and so I was really angry. I went to a bar and that's when I met Tim." She smiled a little at first, like she was remembering a fond memory, but her face soon turned sour. "He was a really big guy. Built like a mountain. He had a head of fiery red hair and he was incredibly imposing, but there was just something about him. I wasn't sure if I should have run away or bowed in his honor. Well, he sat in the corner and I was at the bar when a bunch of guys came up to me and started taunting me." She took a deep breath and took another sip of orange juice. "They were giving me grief for losing the match and one of them was really mad because I apparently lost him some money."

"I'm so sorry, mom." I said quietly. I had only seen my mother as the woman she is now and trying to imagine her differently was hard for me, but she didn't deserve that kind of ridicule. She smiled a little.

"Thanks, kid, but that's not where it ends. Well, I was starting to get pretty steamed and so I uh…I punched the guy in the face. Pretty hard. Well, that's when all hell broke loose. Apparently this guy had a lot of friends in this bar, so a bit of a fight broke out."

"What, and you got in a fight with my dad?" She laughed and shook her head.

"Quite the opposite. He got on my side. We cleared out the bar. Quite literally, actually. It was just us and rubble that was left. I remember that he had this…incredible bright orange classic thunderbolt and we both got in and we just took off. He said his name was Tim and that's as far as we got when we were back to my hotel room. You probably know what happened next, but he was gone when I woke up in the morning." She said with a nod. I just stared at her for a few moments.

"I…was not expecting that." I said with a small chuckle. "I uh…"

"What were you expecting?"

"And you're sure he's my father?" She nodded and I laughed quietly again. "I don't know. I don't know what I was expecting. Not some roving biker vagrant who randomly beats up people and has sex with boxers."

"Hey, be nice." She said with a bit of a laugh. "When you say it like that…" She said, blushing a little bit. I laughed again and looked up at the clock. I had to go to school soon. I stood up off the counter and poured my bowl I the sink and washed my hands. "Is it that time already?" I nodded and she finished off her orange juice. "Alrighty. You grab your bag. I'm going to get dressed. Meet me back here in 5 minutes?" She said with a smile. I nodded again and headed for the stairs. "Peter?" I looked back. "Thanks."

"No problem, mom." I said before hurrying over and hugging her. She hugged me back and after a second we broke apart and I headed upstairs.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'll pick you up after school, kid." My mom said with a smile. "Unless, I get a call telling me to pick you up cause you got in a fight again." I stared at my mom's excitement before shaking my head and getting out, slipping the strap of my messenger bag over my head.

"I'll see you, mom." I said with a wave before she left. I slowly turned back toward my school and took a deep breath before heading into the front doors. The Crefeld School was one of those schools where they pride themselves on being accepting of all applicants, while still keeping a level of academic success in each student. They based it on the average GPA of each student which was higher than most schools in the area. The rumor is that the schoolwork is some of the easiest stuff to ever grace a bookbag and that the faculty is more focused on making money and being prestigious than it is actually teaching students. There were teachers that like challenging students, but they were few and far between on the average student schedule.

The campus itself was large and it allowed for a slew of extra-curriculars from Frisbee team to glassblowing to martial arts. I know that it sounds more like Summer camp then school, but it is a school. The school made its best effort to seem appealing and to look like a school that was all about college preparation, but it was a business through and through. In Eighth grade I made an art project in the glass blowing studio and they sold it. If you're thinking that I saw any of that money, then you're kidding yourself.

Anyway, as I walked into the front doors, the sudden change of environment flooded my sensory. Dull fluorescent lighting in a dull hallway lined with dull gray lockers. Cliques of students already sectioned off and forming unwelcoming social circles throughout the corridor. Unfortunately, my first class was at the end of the hallway. I say unfortunately because as soon as someone saw me, a strange hum swept down the hallway starting at one end and moving like a tidal wave down the hallway to the opposite end.

Faces popped up in the miscellaneous groups all to look at me, the kid who put a guy in the hospital last night. My walk to class became a walk of shame, a certain group of cheerleaders, centered around Carly Dixon, Eli and Robert's girlfriend. You may be confused, but let me explain. Carly has been dating Robert since grade 4, but ever since she got into high school she's been dating Eli. Not dating Eli instead of Robert. I mean, dating Eli as well as Robert. Neither of them now that they have the same girlfriend.

I walked past the JV cheer squad and stared at the ground, trying not to focus on how many people were actually looking at me. I weaved past Little South America, where a high concentration of the school's Hispanic population hung out, and stopped at my locker. Before you think I'm being offensive, it's their name for it. Not mine. _Pequeño Sudamérica._ They even have a sign and everything.

I opened up my locker and grabbed my Latin textbook and my shop folder, slipping them into my bag. I closed my locker and returned to my walk of shame only to bump into my locker neighbor, Lindsey Blackman. I quickly caught her as she started to fall and stood her back up awkwardly before retracting my hands and trying to not die of embarrassment.

"Uh…sorry." I mumbled before venturing a glance up at her where she looked at me oddly. She didn't say anything or at least I didn't give her a chance too before I left the disaster area and started down the hall again. I had a zone of hushed whispering following me as I moved down the hall. In a way this made things easier because it seemed like no one wanted to touch me. A nice aisle of humiliation formed in front of me, as I walked. I finally reached my Latin class and walked in, taking my seat near the back of the class. I pulled out my textbook and my notebook. I flipped past all of the random doodles and finally landed on the most recent sketch I had been working on, which was conveniently a T-Rex devouring my Latin teacher, Dr. Koorbaum.

"My sentiments exactly." I halted my shading on the dinosaur's tail and looked over to see Freddy take a seat next to me. He was smiling at me and down at my notebook, his curly black hair, pushed down by the fedora on his head, obscuring his eyes enough to make it difficult to tell if he was sincere or not. I looked around the room and found it empty, making me curious why the school mascot was choosing today to talk to me.

"I'm sorry?" I said after a moment, turning in my desk slightly.

"I wish a T-Rex would eat Koorbaum, too. Latin is boring enough as is without him teaching it." Freddy said, adjusting the fedora on his head a little bit down on his head.

"This is kind of a crappy way to start the day, isn't it?" I said with a small laugh before turning back to my notebook. The room was silent except for the hum of the lights. I could feel Freddy looking at me, so I turned back to him. "Do you have this class, too?"

"No. Absolutely not. I already know Latin."

"Then….Why are you here?"

"Oh! I was…I was just coming in to talk to you. I thought that maybe we should get to know each other."

"Hey, you know…I totally get if you're…you know…'wearing a green carnation,' but I don't…"

"What do you mean?"

"Playing for the other team? Hitting left handed? Flying the rainbow flag?"

"Oh, my gods, no. No, no, no. That's not what I meant. I mean, I've got—No." Freddy took a second and a deep breath. "I've seen that you don't really have friends around here, so I thought I'd say hi." My fists clenched a little when he said I didn't have any friends. He was right, but it still hurt.

"What, so I'm some charity case?" I said angrily. "Make friends with the kid, so you can get some brownie points into heaven? Is that it?"

"No, that's not what I meant at all! I just thought that—"

"Freddy, what are you doing hanging out with this kid?" I looked up and saw Jacob Markinson walk in, followed by his band of flunkies. "He bothering you or something?"

"No, man. We were just talking." Freddy said, standing up and looking at Peter. Peter gripped his desk tightly, taking deep breaths. I could feel my body getting hot again, but I reminded myself of what happened yesterday and calmed down a little. "Peter and I are friends, right, Petey?"

"You gotta stay away from him, Freddy." Jacob said, stepping in front of him and ducking down to get in my face.

"I'm not gonna hurt anybody." I said. I wasn't sure if it was to myself or if it was to Jacob, but apparently Jacob thought otherwise.

"You hear this? He's making threats. Like a crazy person." Jacob said with a laugh, standing up and pointing at me to his friends who laughed along with him. "Maybe it's from that mom of his."

"Hey, Jacob, how about you just cut him a break this time?" Freddy said with a nod. So, Freddy though I was unhinged, too. He was claiming to be on my side. My body heated up again and it felt like my fingers were sinking into the metal leg of the desk.

"I'd like to see him try and hurt me. Come on. Try it you little bit—" Before he could finish I had flung my desk against the wall and found myself holding one of the legs, raised to bash Jacob's head in. I opened my eyes and looked into his and all I saw was surprise. Some strange mix of shock and terror. This wasn't me. I was just the kid that no one paid attention to. Bullying glanced off me like bullets did Superman. This wasn't me. I dropped the leg of the desk and quickly grabbed my bag before beating a hasty retreat out of the classroom.

I ran. It felt like I ran for a while. I mean, I wasn't in good shape by any meaning of the word. I was tall and lanky, but there wasn't an ounce of muscle on me and the only exercise I regularly got was walking up and down the stairs to get food and bring it up to my room. When I stopped running, I was on the side of the athletic building. There were four buildings to the campus: The main academic building, where I went Incredible Hulk on a school desk, the cafeteria, the arts and studios building, and the athletic building where I was currently.

I took a moment to catch my breath, putting my hand on the brick building, so I could lean against it. I ran my other hand through my head, but stopped quickly when I felt something strange. I moved my hand against the bricks and heard what sounded like metal scraping against it. I hesitantly moved my hand away and jumped a little when I saw shiny metal stuck to my hand like dripped on melted candle wax that had hardened, making an imprint of my skin.

"Well, this is weird." I mumbled, my eyes like saucers as I started to pull the metal off. My hand underneath was red, but other than that it was seemingly unharmed. My mind swam with images, replaying what had just happened in my head. _I ripped off the leg of the desk. But what if I didn't rip it off? What if I melted it then pulled it away? What am I thinking? I can't melt metal with my bare hands. I can't do anything with my bare hands. _I wiped my hand off on my jeans then sat down against the wall, staring at my hands. I grabbed the mold of my hand off the ground and looked at it, confused mostly. There was a perfectly logical explanation as to why I was able to tear the leg off a desk, throw the desk at a wall, and have my hand look like it had aluminum foil melted onto it. Whatever that explanation happened to be was a totally mystery to me.

That spot against the wall was where I spent almost all of that morning. Unsurprisingly, no one came looking. I didn't receive any phone calls, not that I would have heard them considering I was playing _Temple Run_ the whole time. I stayed there, alternating between thinking about if I were some kind of freak and this was just my superhero origin story or if I was simply losing my mind.


	4. Chapter 4

Peter Chapter 4.

I had first lunch. Luckily, The Crefeld School is lucky to have an outdoor cafeteria, allowing students to sneak into the day at lunch almost every day of the week. Including this one because I was planning exactly that. I moved from my spot by the gymnasium and waited for a crowd to gather before seamlessly joining the group, heading toward the food line.

I moved quickly, weaving through people. I got to near the front of the line and managed to hide between two very lanky basketball players talking about doing a kegstand at some party that I more than likely wasn't invited to. Somehow I didn't feel like going to some strange house, getting brown-out drunk, and rubbing up against someone as all that much fun. Call me old-fashioned.

"You're old-fashioned." I said quietly to myself, not even realizing it. One of the basketball players turned to me.

"What?" I found myself being glared down at by two behemoths.

"I said…I hear they use old potatoes and mash 'em." I said, leaning my head up higher for their benefit.

"I'm pretty sure it's just powder. It's nasty either way, am I right?"

"Oh, totally. It's like eating soap." The two of them laughed, much to my surprise. I kind of imagined them being expert ball-handling robots.

"Hey, aren't you the kid who—"

"Didn't you score four…baskets last year in the…game?" I said in a bit of a panic. I realized quickly that in my altercation the previous night that a basketball player had been my so-called 'victim.'

"Four? More like twenty-four. It was us against the—" I didn't stay to listen. He honestly wasn't even talking to me anymore, so I didn't feel inclined to stay and listen. I moved ahead a few spots in line and waited a little impatiently. It's not that I was hungry, but I just didn't like waiting in line. I'm impatient. So sue me.

I got my lunch, a 'balanced and healthy' meal of mashed potatoes with gravy, chicken nuggets, a stale roll, and a substance that surely resembled jell-o at some point, and then made my way into the center of the cafeteria. There was always one table. The table that was empty or the table that had room without having to talk to someone. From the looks I was getting, it didn't seem like I had any other options.

I finally spied a table near the outskirts of the courtyard under a shady tree. I started to walk toward it and discovered that Bartholomew Hackin DeGrunther had beaten me to it. Bartie, as I called him against his will, was a foreign exchange student from Wales. He had a strong accent and happened to probably be one of the only Welsh multi-lingual goth kids on the planet. I had shared a table with him more than once and he still didn't like me. Wasn't sure why really.

"Bartie, how's it going?"

"It's Bartholomew." He corrected, brushing a few strands of hair out of his face. "For the eight billionth time, it's Bartholomew."

"Oh, come on, Bartie. We haven't even known each other for eight billion seconds and I know I haven't been calling you Bartholomew multiple times per second since the moment I met you and I doubt you've been able to say 'It's Bartholomew' seven billion, nine hundred and ninety nine million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety _eight_ times before I walked up just now."

"Just sit down, Peter. I know you're going to, anyway." Bartholomew said with a roll of his eyes.

"I'm wearing you down, Bartie. Soon you'll expect to be called Bartie." I said, unfolding my napkin.

"I doubt it, but you're welcome to try." Bartholomew said, poking at his mashed potatoes. "Actually, no. You're not welcome to try."

"First answers only, Bartie."

"Peter. There you are." I looked back at the sound of my name and saw Freddy hurrying over.

"Oh, my gosh, Freddy. What?" I said in exasperation. I figured that after I almost bludgeoned his friend this morning that he would leave me alone. Yet the mascot persists.

"No, Peter." He said, putting his hands up in surrender. "I just wanted to ask how you did that this morning. And I wanted to apologize for what they said to you, too."

"It's okay. It happens."

"Wait, what did you do?" Bartholomew asked, looking at me then hesitantly up at Freddy and back.

"Nothing, Bartie. Just…had a bit of an incident." I explained, trying to be vague. Freddy had a different idea.

"He tore the leg off a desk. And almost bashed Jacob Markinson's face in." Freddy explained, sitting across from Peter. "It was actually pretty impressive."

"Jacob Markinson? Good grief. And you're still standing here?" Bartholomew asked, turning away from his food

"Well, I ran off after I stopped myself from committing a felony." I said, rolling my eyes a little as I took a bite of my jell-o.

"Nothing to worry about, by the way. I covered for you." Freddy said, patting me on the back.

"Thanks, I guess…" I was suspicious of how nice Freddy was being especially since this was probably the first time we had spoken, really. We had both been bullied. We'd both seen our shares of locker interiors, but I had the lower rank in the social hierarchy. I was lower than the mascot.

"Hey, listen, I was hoping to talk to you about last night. I might—"

"Hey, you know what? Just uh…Just don't worry about it." I said a little rudely. I didn't want to be mean, but talking to Freddy about something that sounded like a discussion about my 'changing body' isn't really something that appeals to me.

"No, I think—" Freddy was cut off by the lunch bell. I had never been so grateful to get back to class.

"See you, Bartie." I said, standing up and tossing my tray into the trash. I hadn't eaten much, but that was okay. I wasn't hungry. After that, I headed toward the gym. Immediately, I felt my stomach drop. I was glad to get away from Freddy, but unfortunately that meant going to P.E.

I headed into the locker room and quickly changed clothes then headed into the gym were a line was forming in front of the Crefeld School athletic director, Mr. Barnes. He was a tall and rotund man, dressed in what used to be regulation, but was so far out of style it was no longer on the map: A pair of shorts ending mid-thigh and a tight collared shirt, something straight out of the seventies.

"Alright, kiddies! Because Ms. Macon is out on maternity leave, I will be your substitute until she returns." He explained, chomping on a piece of gum. "I was not given a lesson plan, nor was I told what you were learning, so for today, we will be playing dodgeball! The rules of the game are as follows!" Mr. Barnes came from an era of gym class that didn't involve nutrition or health or proper exercise. Physical education meant kicking the crap out of each other, usually with boxing gloves. Now, since all of the 'namby-pambies' have 'girlied up the system,' he hung up his gloves and took out his ba—I mean, he brought out the dodgeballs. He was also the kind of guy who treated a gym class how a drill Sergeant might treat a barracks full of soldiers. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Mr. Barnes." I said with a bit of a sigh. Everyone on planet earth knew the rules to dodgeball, so it didn't really make sense for him to explain it every time we played it. I honestly think he just liked yelling.

"Good! Now, let's count off." That was the other aspect I hated. He counted off. The same way. Every time. I looked down the line and saw that every kid like me whose greatest athletic accomplishment was pro level on wii bowling was sandwiched between two jocks, standing feet taller than most everyone else. "Alright, girl scouts! Get to your sides and wait!"

I headed to the right and walked to the wall, leaning up against it. We were going to get crushed like we always did.

"Dodgeball!"

And so it began.

The people around me shot forward, hoping to get a ball to protect their lives from the coming red ball bombardment. I didn't move from wall-bound foxhole, not wanting to venture into the fray of battle. My cover was blown when the wall of people I had been taking advantage of were all wiped out in a loud _plunk-plunk-plunk!_ Cacophony.

I finally moved away from the wall and moved quickly, dodging three balls which bounced off the wall behind me. Taking the time while they reload, I turn and grab a ball of my own, holding it up as a shield. I managed to block one ball, then another, then in the heat of the moment I threw the ball. It didn't move very fast, but it bounced off a guy's foot, getting him out.

I stood there in surprise only to be hit by a ball in the side of the head. I could feel my face getting hot from the impact, but I looked over and saw none other than Jacob Markinson laughing at me. I could feel my face get even hotter and I slowly walked over to the side, waiting for the game to finish.

It was only a matter of seconds later when the rest of my team was out and we switched sides.

"Try and put up a fight this time, huh, ladies?" Mr. Barnes said before blowing his whistle. I shot off the wall and got to the line before anyone else, immediately grabbing a ball and sweeping four more to my side. I went into some sort of trance and it was like everything else turned off. My eyes quickly scanned the opposite side. Ten people. Four with balls. Six unarmed. I backed up and stepped on a ball that was behind me. I easily blocked a thrown ball and then stepped over the ball, before kicking it to the other side.

The other team watched the ball giving me a chance to throw mine, hitting Scott Falkner right in the groin. He crumpled to the ground and I quickly bent down grabbing another ball. I went to the back of my team's side, getting a sense of the numbers. My team was down to six, but I wasn't going to give up. Just as someone on my team got hit, I threw my ball, getting another person on their team out. I ran to grab another ball, dodging two en route, then quickly stood up, blocking one more. It seemed like I was unstoppable.

Jacob Markinson intentionally hit two more of my teammates in the face, then laughed at them. I could feel myself getting more and more angry and with each passing second, I seemed to heat up. Both literally and metaphorically. The other team seemed like it was standing still. I threw another ball and caught another immediately afterward. Three people on my team. Five people on their team. I threw another, but they dodged, leaving my team with nothing. I stood there waiting for them to throw. They all carefully picked up balls and then counted down._ 3…2…1…_ I counted in my head before shoving one of my teammates out of the way of a ball and then leaning backward to dodge another. I landed on my hand and then shoved off, spinning sideways out of the way of another ball. It was like I had become a gymnast and I was doing a floor routine to dodge the dodgeballs. I rolled forward and turned around just in time to catch the fifth ball. I took a second to catch my breath, but everyone was only staring at me.

"That was incredible." One of my teammates said, his mouth agape.

"Umm…Thanks." I said quietly.

"Hey, pretty princess." I turned to look at the source of the voice and saw Jacob Markinson running at me. "You gonna dance around during dodgeball? Huh?" He lowered his head like a bull and got ready to grab me, but I dodged out of the way before hitting him with a dodgeball. I laughed a little, but he grabbed me by my shirt and pinned me up against the wall. "Are you trying to be a little ballerina, you big fairy?" I clawed at his hand and I could feel myself getting angry again. I could feel my hands getting hot like they did the previous night.

"You mad, bro?" I said, trying to free myself from his grasp. "Did I hurt your widdle feelings?" I looked over at the room and saw Mr. Barnes nowhere to be found. That was when I felt his fist hit me in the stomach. I let out a groan and wondered for a second if all bullies punched in the same way, aiming for the same spot. "Oh, man. Was that you that just hit me? I thought it was an old woman." His eyes widened and he hit me again.

"Do you want to get hit, you psycho?" Jacob said, clenching his fist again. I thought about his question and I actually had to think. Usually people don't want to get hit, but I kind of did. It was like I was feeding off of it. He punched me again and I cringed but then laughed at him.

"Are you done yet? I got places to be." I said with a chuckle. I looked him in the eye and he actually looked scared. He threw me down to the hard gym floor and then kicked me hard in the ribs. I clenched my fists again harder and harder with each time he hit me. I grew hotter and angrier until it felt like my skin was on fire. Jacob kicked me again and I rolled over onto my back smiling up at him.

"Jacob, maybe you shouldn't—" I heard one of the kids around me say, but Jacob ignored him.

"STOP SMILING AT ME!" He said before getting to one knee and punching me in the face. "You sick freak!" He punched me again and it was like something snapped inside me. My skin felt white-hot and Jacob jumped a little before scrambling back away from me. I heard gasps and people calling for a teacher, but I didn't find out before I passed out.


	5. Chapter 5

I found myself in a valley. I only say valley because I could tell that it was an area between mountains, but it felt like a pit. On all sides was a giant circle of mountains, trapping me here. I started to panic when I grew and grew and grew until I could see over the mountains, my head in a thick fog of clouds. Below me I could see a mountain and on top stood an old-looking structure. It looked like a museum or some memorial from Washington, DC. Before my eyes, I watched it burst into flames and quickly turn to ash. I stared in surprise as the ashes were sucked in by the ground and from the top of that mountain started a crack

The crack grew and grew and grew until it shot and expanded between my legs. From the start of it a large column of lava shoot up and start to heat up the entire scene. Trees started to burn along with grass. The ground beneath my feet started to tremble and I panicked. I started running. I ran away from the lava and from the crack, but everywhere I turned, more cracks formed, splitting the earth below me until it disappeared and I fell. That's when I woke up.

I opened my eyes and was greeted with feeling cold and fluorescent lighting. Judging by the smell of ammonia, I guessed it was either a janitor's closet or the nurse's office. It was a small room with posters on the walls that said stuff like, "Get a flu shot" or "Wash your hands" and it had a bird washing itself in a bird bath. It doesn't really make sense, since birds don't have hands, but it gets the point across. From that I guessed it was the nurse's office.

When I finally did wake up, I felt fine. I mean, fine for someone who just got punched in the face, stomach, and kicked in the ribs by a football player. I was mostly confused. I didn't remember much, except that I had the crap kicked out of me and then after that it's a bit hazy.

I tried to think of what happened that made me pass out or what happened that necessitated I be brought to the closet/nurse's office in the first place. As I thought the looks of surprise or worry or fear or some emotion came back to me. Whatever I did that made people flip out must have been pretty astounding. Or terrifying. Or something. I just wish I knew what it was.

I had managed to sit up and lean up against my pillow when the door opened.

"Oh, Peter. You're awake. We were worried you were going to need an ambulance." A frail woman with silver wiry hair walked in and set her glasses down by the sink before filling a paper cup with water and handing it to me.

"Thanks, Mrs. C." I said with a nod in a raspy voice. Mrs. C was the school nurse at Crefeld. Most people called her Mrs. C because she had become a bit of an institution. She loved working there which was good because she had been doing it for around six hundred years. I took a drink then cleared my throat. "How long was I out?" I asked quietly.

"From what I understand, only about 30 minutes. After your little incident with Mr. Markinson, we called your mom and the police and the fire department and—"

"Wait…The fire department?"

"Don't interrupt, sonny…" Mrs. C said, sitting on the bed next to mine. "I…oh, dear, your face is bleeding again…"

"Wow…Jacob has a big fist." I said with a sigh as I looked in the mirror hung on the wall over her shoulder. I had a band-aid on my nose where a cut had formed and then another visible cut on my forehead and on my cheek. "Oh…Wait. No, it's his class ring. You can see the imprint of the 'M' a little."

"Just sit still, would you?" Mrs. C said before pressing a small pad of gauze on my cheek. I winced a little and felt how swollen my face was. "Anyway, we called the police and they need to know if you'd like to press charges, but he's saying some pretty disturbing things, I will say."

"Like wha—Ow! Cheese and rice, Mrs. C…" I said when I felt her pull the band-aid off my nose, ripping off any excess skin and scabbing that had happened.

"Well, you bled through that one. Just sit still." She removed the gauze from my cheek and waited a moment before putting a band-aid on it. "Now, don't bleed through this one." She said, placing new band-aids on my face.

"What kind of stuff is Jacob saying?" I asked Mrs. C, trying to not move too much in fear that I'll bleed through my band-aids again.

"Well, he said that you were telling him to hit you and that you were acting possessed." Mrs. C said, throwing the trash from my bandages into the trash can. "He also said your skin started smoking and your set the gym floor on fire, but those are both just gibberish, really." As soon as she said that, I had a bad feeling that was exactly what happened.

"Mrs. C, have you ever seen someone that was…I don't know how to say it…" I wasn't sure what I was trying to say. It's not like I could go right out and say, 'I think I have the power to set myself and other people on fire. Is that weird or am I just having puberty hot flashes?'

"Well, when you figure it out, come and find me. The fire marshal wanted to talk to you in the gymnasium once you woke up."

"Fire Marshal?" I asked a little nervously. I stood up from my bed and steadied myself on the wall. "I guess, I'll get going then. Thanks, Mrs. C."

"Anytime, dear. But not too often. That would be bad." Mrs. C gave me a gentle smile then stepped away, letting me slide past and get to the door. I took a deep breath and left the nurse's office, heading down the hall. I was shaking a little as I walked through the hall. My heart was pounding and I was nervous. _Could it be proven that I did anything? And it was just a fight. But they did call the fire department. Did I actually set the gym on fire?_

I walked through the tables outdoors and made my way to the gym, opening the doors and walking inside. I made a note that I was still in my gym uniform and I made a stop in the locker room to change and grab my bag. I emerge again into the gym and bump right into Freddy who has a panicked look on his face.

"Dude, you've gotta go." He said, trying to push me back into the locker room.

"Hey! You're that Peter kid, right?" A loud voice came from behind Freddy. I look at Freddy a moment then look to see the fire marshal standing around a mark on the gym floor. I push past Freddy and discover that the mark is a large black mark surrounding the outline of a person. I had to admit. It was looking pretty bad for Peter David Everett. "Do you mind explaining this?" I froze under the fire marshal's heavy gaze. Luckily I didn't have to panic long because Freddy stepped forward.

"It was a gas explosion." Freddy said before snapping his fingers. "The ducts directed the blast and it marked the ground." The Fire Marshal paused for a second. "Remember? You called Peter here to ask if he was okay." He paused again and then turned to Peter.

"Of course. You okay, son? You could have been really hurt in a blast like this."

"Uhh…uh-huh." I manage, looking more confused than hurt. "What's uh…I'm…"

"Okay. I think Peter's mom is here. Thanks so much for keeping us students safe, sir. We couldn't do it without you." The Fire Marshal smiled and patted Freddy on the shoulder.

"Oh, think nothing of it. I'm just doing my job. Now, you get home, young man and rest." The fire marshal said with a nod at me. I stood there confused until Freddy put a hand on my back and started leading me out of the gym.

"Don't say anything until we leave." Freddy said to me quietly before pushing the door open, leading outside. We walk past the lunch tables and make our way to the front of the school where a black sports car waited, my mother inside. Freddy let out a low whistle.

"Please tell me that was at the car."

"What? Yeah. A Bentley GT. Beautiful car." Freddy said with a nod.

"Good. My mom could probably kill you." I said as we walked up to my mother's car. "Mom, do you mind if Freddy here comes over to the house for a little while? He and I need to talk about something."

"Yeah! Of course!" My mother said. "I hope you don't mind the backseat, Freddy.. I would have driven the Prius if I'd known I'd have company."

"It's okay, Ms. Everett. It's just a privilege driving in such a beautiful automobile." Freddy said, climbing in over the passenger seat. I put the seat up and then get in, resting my bag on my lap. It was silent. The car ride. My mother had the common sense enough to embarrass me in front of Freddy, thankfully, and I don't think Freddy wanted to talk about whatever he did back there in front of my mother. At least, I thought that until we were about two minutes away.

"So, Freddy," my mom said, hoping to initiate some small talk. "What—"

"I think your son is a demigod." Freddy said very matter-of-factly, staring out the window like it was the most casual thing he's said all day. The car screeched to a stop.

"Run that by me again." I said quietly, turning toward him.

"Yeah. What he said." My mom said a little quietly, looking back at him as well.

"Well, it's kind of a long story." Freddy said with a sigh, looking at me. "You might not know much about your father, but I believe, having observed you that you are a demigod. That your father was a god."

"What? So, that makes me Jesus or something?"

"No, no. Little 'g' god. Like of Olympus."

"Zeus. Poseidon. Hermes." My mom added in. "So, one of them knocked me up? Which one was it?" My mom said like she was about to go to their house and beat them up.

"Well, I don't know, honestly. I've never seen anything like this before, but there is a place where he can go. He can train and he can be safe." Freddy explained. I looked around a little nervously when he said I could be safe there and realized that we were sticking out in the middle of the road. "I'm a little confused as to why we hadn't found you already, anyway. You're fourteen."

"Yes. I am. Is that some magic age?" I ask before nudging my mom to keep driving.

"Well, after the Second Titan war—"

"Wait, there was another one? I know about the one that started the reign of the gods, but there was a second one?"

"Thirteen years ago. Kronos attempted a rebellion, but was killed before he could succeed." I took a moment and put my hands over my face. "Then only 4 years ago was the Promethean Rebellion which—"

"Promethean…Okay." I stopped Freddy from speaking again as I felt the car stop and turn off. "Okay. Let's continue this inside because right now, I'm pretty sure you're insane." I grabbed my backpack and got out of the car and followed my mom up out of the garage to our house.

"Can I get either of you a drink? I know I'm going to have one." My mom said before reaching into her 'special' cabinet.

"Diet Coke, if you've got one." Freddy said as he walked through the door from our garage. I lead him past the kitchen where my mother was pouring herself a shot of something, and into the living room, a large room with a large TV against one wall and a large window taking up the wall to the left of it. I tossed my bag onto the couch then turned to Freddy.

"Okay. Take a seat. I'll be right back. Please don't…be crazy on anything." I said a little frantically before heading back into the kitchen. I grabbed a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew and a can of Diet Coke. I looked at my mom who looked worried. I think it was the fact that it's possible she had a one night stand with a deity. I patted my mom on the arm gently then walked back into the living room to see Freddy pulling his pants off. However instead of normal legs or even a pair of underwear, I saw thick black-haired legs. I stood in shock as his pants came all the way off to reveal hooves instead of feet.

"Thanks." He said, taking his soda from me. I didn't say anything.

"Why do…" I started asking. "Is that—Are you—Were you wearing your mascot costume under your pants?" I asked, but I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"No. I'm actually a satyr."

"The neighbors have a Seder for Passover." My mom said walking in with a drink in her hand until seeing Freddy's legs. Her drink fell out of her hand and she stood next to me both of us staring at his legs. "Is that his—"

"Nope." I said quietly.

"Listen, please just—"

"Whoa, no, no." I said finally, holding up a finger. "So, you're a satyr. Like a…faun."

"Those are Roman, but yes. Pretty much."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I wasn't sure what was going through my mind at that moment, but I was really trying to grasp the idea that the person in front of me was half-goat. "So, I'm supposed to believe that under that hat you're wearing is a pair of—Oh, my Lucas, you have horns on your head." Freddy had taken off his hat and revealed two small horns sticking out from his head.

"Uncle Grover didn't say it was going to be this difficult…" Freddy mumbled before dropping his hat by his pants. "Look, I'm a satyr. I was sent to Crefeld to smell for—"

"Smell? I have a smell?"

"All demigods do. That's how monsters like me can find you."

"There are other monsters? Like…bad monsters?"

"Yes, but I don't think they'll find you. Your smell is different. Older, almost."

"Thanks."

"No, I mean…That's why I waited this long. I couldn't identify and it could have been some random thing throwing me off. But then you started burning people and setting the gym on fire and—"

"Yeah, how did you get past that—"

"You set the gym on fire?" My mother finally interjected. "They told me there was a fire. Not that my son was a firebug!"

"I didn't mean to set it, mom!" I said in defense.

"QUIET!" Freddy shouted. My mom and I both looked at him. "Just, please…Sit down and I will start from the beginning and then you will understand."

I sat down on the couch and took a big swig of Mountain Dew. My mom sat next to me. Freddy cleared his throat and took a drink of his soda, then began. He explained how the Greek gods back in Ancient Greece were the center of Western civilization. However, the center soon moved to Rome and the gods moved with it. Now, hundreds of years later, the gods are in the United States. I just sat and listened, absorbing all of the information being given to me by a guy with horns and goat legs, eating a tin can.

He continued to say that the gods have children with mortals. The children once they turn a certain age some start to develop powers, some before that and some after that. However, at the age of 13, by request from some guy named Percy, the gods are required to claim their children, assuming they have already been brought to camp. That's what made me so interesting, I guess.

"So, when I get to camp, I'm going to get claimed?" I ask quietly.

"It's very possible. Some claimings are fairly visible, so the gods wouldn't want to make a scene. However, it's possible the mist would block it."

"The mist?" My mother asked. "You said something about the mist hiding the magic world?"

"Yes. There are some mortals who have the ability to see through the mist. For the most part, all demigods can see through it, though it can be especially heavy and can still hide things from demigods." I listened carefully and nodded a little just as a shadow passed over my face from the window. From the look on Freddy's face, he saw it, too. "We should go. The longer you stay here, the more your mother is in danger." Freddy said, standing up. "Thank you, Ms. Everett for your hospitality."

"No, thank you, Freddy." She said, shaking his hand a moment. "Peter, let's go pack you a bag and then…Then I'll see you off." I nodded and then headed toward my room. There was an uncomfortable silence between my mom and me. It was pretty obvious why. I walked into my room and grabbed a small duffle bag and set it open on my bed. I walked to my dresser and started grabbing clothes, but my mom just stood near the door. She wasn't watching me, but she was just looking around my room.

It was going to be heard to say goodbye for both of us. Since the beginning it had just been the two of us. My mom had always been there to lead me and protect me and now I had to leave to protect her. I set my clothes in my bag then turned to her, a small lump building up in my throat. "Mom, I—"

"I'm going to miss you so much, Petey…" She said quietly, her voice cracking.

"It's only two hours away, mom. We have 15 cars. Never seeing each other again is almost impossible."

"I know, sweetheart…" She said quietly. She moved from her spot by the door and started grabbing clothes out of my dresser. "I just…I can't believe you'll be off fighting monster. I'm worried you're gonna get hurt."

"This coming from the woman who laughed when she heard I got in a fight at a football game." She took a deep breath and then sighed, putting my clothes in my bag and then wrapping her arms around me in a warm embrace.

"I'm going to miss you." She whispered, kissing my head once.

"I know, mom. I'm going to miss you, too." I said quietly, my voice wavering just a little bit. I could feel a tear starting to build up, but that was interrupted when I heard a loud crash come from downstairs. "Dang it! I didn't get to move Petrocles to a market." I said, zipping up my bag.

"Peter! Priorities?"

"You're right, mom." I said, grabbing my bag. "I'll do it fast."


	6. Chapter 6

I had just turned on my screen when my mom pulled me away from my computer. In retrospect, I'm sure she meant that going was my priority, but I was panicking at the time. I could not be responsible for my actions. She pushed my bag into my arms and then started shoving me down the stairs which was a good thing, because when I got down there Freddy was pushed up against the wall by a monstrous looking woman, big black feathers hanging from its arms.

I wasn't sure what to do and I just panicked. My mom has a different idea. She tackled the birdlady, not dissimilar to how she would her opponent in one of her fights. "Run, boys! I can handle this thing." She punched it in the face.

"A harpy. Minion-level monster." I said quietly to myself. I looked over quickly and helped Freddy up before shoving him back toward the garage. "I'm only worth a minion-level monster?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Freddy said before reaching into his pocket and handing me a y-shaped stick. "You ever used a slingshot before?"

"Are you kidding?" I watched him grab a set of keys from our key box and then turn back toward the cars. "I've played and beaten Every Legend of Zelda game at least twice."

"Well, that'll have to do, then." Freddy said before pressing the button on the remote. A few feet away a large yellow H3 Hummer beeped in response. "Hummer. Perfect."

"I thought you satyrs were supposed to be all enviro-friendly." I said, getting into the passenger's seat.

"Not when we're killing monsters. Then we need a Hummer." He said starting the car. "Now, get up and start shooting harpies."

"I don't have any Deku seeds!"

"What are you talking about?" Freddy said as he pressed the button to open the sun roof. "Just pull back, aim, and let go. And be quick about it." I looked at him still a little confused, but stood up anyway. I held it up as another harpy zoomed from the sky and started chasing the car. I pulled back and sure enough I felt a pellet a little bit bigger than a marble grow between my fingers. I took aim at the harpy and let go. The band snapped and the marble shot through the air and hit the harpy in the shoulder, where dust started to pour out.

"They're made of dust?" I shouted into the car. Freddy looked up and then swerved to dodge a car that was coming around a corner.

"I'll explain later! Keep shooting!" He shouted before turning left away from the highway. I was confused, but I assumed that maybe there was some secret tunnel to the camp or something. I was a little bit distracted at the moment.

"I'm worth more than minion level monsters, you stupid harpy!" I shouted, pulling the band back again and letting go, firing another marble at the harpy which hit it in the wrist and took its hand clean off. "What are these things—"

"Later! Keep shooting!" He took a few more quick turns and then stooped quickly at the end of a road, the Hummer screeching to a stop. The harpy kept coming and I had to duck quickly back into the car as it raked its claws over the top and flew over us. I turned and fired another marble at it which hit it in that same shoulder, knocking its wing off. It spun out and landed in the highway to our right where it exploded into dust on the hood of someone's car.

"Why are we stopped?" I asked before hearing a loud screech and seeing two more harpies appear off in the distance. I panicked a little and looked at Freddy's face. I followed his eyes and at the end of the road was a Giant man dressed in a large pair of athletic shorts and a muscle shirt.

"I hate Laistrygonians so much…" He said quietly before flooring it.

"Lieutenant tier. That's much better." I said with a little smile. I sat in my seat and held on tightly as the Liastrygonian started to head into a house. Taking a look around, I realized we were in some lower class housing on the east side of town near the highway. I didn't know who lived here, but seeing the Laistrygonian walking toward that house, I figured out quickly that there must have been another demigod and that this Laistrygonian was not for me. The Liastrygonian turned just as Freddy let out a girlish scream and mowed into him, exploding him into dust all over the hood of our Hummer.

"Okay. Stay here. Keep shooting at the Harpies. I'll be right back." Freddy said before getting out and running toward the house, his hooves clopping on the asphalt. I grabbed the slingshot again and stuck my head out of the way just as a Harpy stuck out her claws at my head. I ducked back down and then turned around and shot a pellet at the monster. It hit her in the ankle and took her foot off, but I suddenly felt to clawed hands grab me under my shoulders and yank me out of the car.

This was it. I was dead. I closed my eyes and waited for the other harpy to start clawing at me, but instead they turned and started carrying me. I started struggling and stabbing the end of the slingshot into its hands and it finally dropped me on top of the house that Freddy had run into. I landed hard and rolled off, landing in the backyard.

"Come, master." A deep raspy voice said. I felt a large hand grab me by the ankle and lift me up. He lifted me up onto his shoulder. "We shall bring you to base after we eliminate these two." I looked ahead and saw Freddy being lifted up by what a Laistrygonian while he clubbed him over the head with what looked like a field hockey stick. I panicked a second and then put my slingshot against his head and snapped a pellet right into his brain. It screamed and turned to dust under me. I fell onto my feet and ran up to the Laistrygonian fighting Freddy and put the slingshot against his eye, firing another marble right into his eye..

"What are we doing here?" I asked him quickly before launching a marble at a nearby harpy and then pushing him through the backdoor of the house.

"Lindsey! Come on! Let's go!" Freddy shouted up the stairs.

"Lindsey?" I said quietly, my eyes widening. I heard footsteps and soon saw perfectly tanned legs wearing a pair of jean shorts walk down the stairs. Lindsey Blackman.

"What are you doing here?" We asked each other, looking each other up and down.

"Are you a satyr, too? I had always wondered if—" She asked, but I stopped her.

"What? No! I'm demigod or something!"

"What? Me too!"

"Yes, yes." Freddy said, shoving them out the front door. "You're both demigods. Let's hit the road."

The back door flew off its hinges and a Laistrygonian came charging through. I fired a marble at the giant then quickly ran after Freddy and Lindsey as we all piled into the Hummer.

"Sunroof, Peter." Freddy said as he started to back up. I could hear Lindsey screaming from inside the car and when I looked to the back of the car, I could see why. Luckily, Freddy swerved out of the way of the oncoming car and then got back onto the road, heading for the highway. I stuck my head out the sunroof and looked around. It didn't seem like anything was coming until I saw a Laistrygonian barrel into a car and start to chase us.

"You might want to…go faster or something!" I shouted before taking aim. I fired and the marble hit him in the chest, but didn't slow him down at all. "Do you have a grenade or something! Or a bigger marble setting at least?" There was a screech and I looked up just as a talon clawed my cheek. I could feel blood start to pour down my face and I quickly fell down into the Hummer.

"Oh, my gods…oh, my gods…" Lindsey said, her hand floating over my cheek. Her hand started to glow and my face felt tight for a second and then the bleeding stopped. "How did I…" I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror and saw that the cut on my face had closed along with the cuts from earlier. I turned back toward her a second just as the rear windshield shattered and two claws reached in and clawed at Lindsey. I pulled her back toward me quickly and then fired a marble at the Harpy which fell back enough.

Suddenly, I felt my skin start to get hot again. I don't know if it was annoyance or the fact that I was sitting this close to Lindsey Blackman or if I was mad at seeing her get hurt, but the slingshot fell from my hand and I stood up out of the sunroof. A harpy flew right at me, but seemed to get knocked out of the way by something. The wind picked up around me and I felt my hair whipping around my face. The wind blew faster and faster, surrounding me until I started to lift into the air. I felt arms wrap around my leg, but I didn't stop. I saw harpies trying to fly away, but they were sucked into the cyclone circling around me, causing them to slam into each other. I wondered what the mortals around me must have seen through the mist as a tornado seemed to be contained with a bright yellow Hummer's sunroof as it entered onto the highway headed for Manhattan.

There was something about it. As the wind circled around me, I felt powerful. I felt unstoppable. I had this urge to take control of this highway and move everything out of the way, not caring for who got hurt in the process. A smile spread across my face as I started to direct the tornado and I turned toward the Laistrygonians chasing us. I moved my hands up and then forced them at the Laistrygonians. The cyclone suddenly moved off of me and traveled down the road before it smacked into the Laistrygonians, whipping them around like a blender until it dispersed leaving a cloud of monster dust behind us. I fell back down to my feet and managed to duck back into the Hummer before everything starting to go hazy.

"Peter? Peter?" I heard Lindsey say before I passed out.


	7. Chapter 7

I didn't dream again. At least, not the way that I dreamt previously. At this rate, I was going to be the most rested half-blood at camp. Every time I use any of my powers, I pass out. I really had to get that taken care of. As I slept, I kept playing back in my head what I had just done. It was a little bit fuzzy, but that was partially why I was replaying it. Every time…My emotion would get high. I got angry. I got embarrassed. I got stressed. I would do something…demigod-y. I didn't know that I could harness a tornado before, but as long as I wasn't setting myself on fire anymore, it wasn't so bad.

I could feel the power, like a stone in the pit of my stomach. I could feel myself drawing in power and as I did, I couldn't control it. I wasn't even sure I could control myself. I could feel everything around me and I could feel the wind like it was an extension of my body. I felt powerful. I imagined myself flying high in the sky over the highway and picking up the cars then launching them off the highway. I imagined myself being unstoppable. The idea scared me. My mom had taught me at a young age that the only people who deserve to be hurt are the ones who hurt first. It was a lesson that I had taken to heart, but I was feeling these impulses. These waves of anger. I could feel myself getting warmer and I was worried that I was going to burst into flames again when I felt something cold on my forehead.

I started to wake up a little and I felt it move from my forehead to my cheek. I was still a little dazed, but eyes blinked open a little bit.

"He's waking up! Freddy, he's awake!" After a second, I realized that was Lindsey talking and after another second I realized that I had my head in her lap and she was wiping my face with a cold towel. "Peter, are you okay? Oh my gods, we were so worried…"

With a bit of a groan, I sat up and swung my legs off the seat. "How long was I out?" I said, my voice raspy.

"30 or 45 minutes. I was a little too shocked to think of looking at the time." Freddy said from the driver's seat. I looked around and realized that we were stopped at a gas station and Freddy was refueling. "We're about an hour away from camp."

"I've got a splitting headache…" I said, putting my face in my hands. I ran my hand through my hair and turned to Lindsey. "Hey, how did you…" I pointed to my cheek and she opened her mouth to speak, but blushed instead.

"I'm pretty sure she's a child of Apollo." Freddy explained after a moment. "Which would make sense with the…musical ability and the whole healing thing."

"And the blonde hair and the perfectly tanned skin." I said without thinking. I stared at the ground a second and then looked over to see Lindsey blushing even harder.

"That doesn't explain you, though, Peter. I mean, you-" _CLUNK!_ The pump shut off and Freddy got out and finished up a moment before getting in and turning back to Peter. "So far, I've seen you burn someone's hand, melt the leg off a desk, spontaneously combust, and now you control a tornado."

"There isn't a god of…completely random…shit?" I asked with a little bit of a nervous laugh.

"Not one that could have knocked up your mom." Freddy said before turning back around and starting the car again. The car grew quiet again and it left me to stew in my thoughts. I was worried. Freddy seemed to know everything about the gods and Camp Half-Blood. If he didn't know who my parent was, then that was a bit of a problem.

"Why couldn't they have knocked up my mom?" I finally asked. Freddy looked at me in the rearview mirror and studied me for a moment.

"Because it's not a god." He said with a shrug. "It would be a god_dess_. The goddess of magic. Hecate. She could probably handle this…crazy elemental stuff that you have going on, but I've never seen it to this extent before and it still wouldn't make sense since you already have a mom. So unless you're adopted or something, it's not her and we need another explanation."

"I'm not adopted. My mom had pictures taken. Not of—gross—There are pictures of her during her pregnancy and after and her right after I'm born with me."

"Well, then we'll just have to find out at camp, right? The gods have to claim you once you're at camp, so you'll find out then." Lindsey said, putting a hand on my shoulder. It was odd to be so friendly with her. We had been okay friends in elementary school then at some point in middle school, she decided to become the girl that all the girls wanted to be, the guys wanted to be with, and parents wanted to be the source of. It was a little odd seeing her living in such a low quality house though.

"Yeah…I guess, you're right." I said quietly, looking over at her. She looked back at me for a long moment and then offered a smile before turning to look out the window. I did the same. After a few moments, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I had to tell this to someone. "So, is this all some big secret or something? I mean, if I were to tell someone, would that be bad?" I asked a little absently toward the front as I logged into Mythomagic Online through my phone.

"Well, don't tell everyone. If you're concerned that someone will get hurt because of it then warn them. We don't really have a rule for that kind of thing." Freddy explained. I only half-listened because I was busy moving Petrocles into the market. I get a small alert telling me that Agatha had come online and I smiled a little.

"What was that?" Lindsey asked, looking over. "Oh, are you playing a game on your phone?"

"Yeah. Sorry. My nerd is showing." I say as I start a message to Hayden. _You'll never believe me, but I think Bradley was right. There was a satyr at my school! He—_I was interrupted by another bleep and saw that I received a message from Hayden.

"Is that phone?" Freddy asked a little urgently.

"Yeah. He's playing a game." Lindsey said a little absently.

"Well, I'm just talking to a friend of mine, just a quick—" I said, but the look on Freddy's face was a little scary.

"You gotta get off it, man." Freddy said quickly. I looked down at my phone and saw that the message was from an hour earlier and I noticed that Agatha wasn't logged on anymore which would make it perfect timing for a log out due to inactivity.

"Hold on. I'll get off in a second." I opened the message and started reading. _Peter. I think Bradley was right. I'm freaking out. Some monster just came at me! Respond ASAP!_ I furrowed my eyebrows and started to respond when the ground rumbled a little bit. I assumed it was a truck passing or something.

"Peter, shut it off! Cell phone signals alert monsters!" Freddy said, reaching back and trying to grab it.

"Dude, calm down. Fine. Fine. I'll shut it off." I logged off and then put it back in my pocket.

"No, no. All the way off. Lindsey, you too. Any signal can—" there was a loud bark and then another followed by more and more loud barks. Suddenly cars started honking and we could hear swerving and collisions and Freddy turned ghostly pale. "I hate hellhounds. Sunroof, Peter. And Lindsey hold on." Freddy slammed his foot on the gas and we started pushing our way through the cars, shooting down the highway. I grabbed the slingshot and then stood up out of the sun roof again. I turned around and saw several large black dogs weaving through. They would have been kind of cute except for the swirling aura of darkness around them, the large teeth, the foaming mouths, and the overall evilness.

I fired a marble at the hell hound and none of them stopped coming. We were going to need something bigger than a marble to take these down. We needed something fast.

"We need something fast! These marbles are pretty much useless." I said, looking for some other weapon.

"Field hockey stick." Freddy said, holding it out to me.

"Need something long distance. Because I would prefer to not die." I said, taking the hockey stick anyway. I tucked it under my arm and then stood back up just as a hellhound jumped onto the back of the hummer. I panicked a little and slammed the hockey stick down on its head. It fell off and rolled under another car.

"Here." Lindsey stood up next to me and handed me a can of red bull.

"I'm supposed to shoot this. At a hellhound." I shrugged and took it then loaded it onto the slingshot. I pulled back and launched it. It smacked into the hellhound, making it swerve and crash into another. "Nice."

"We're almost there!" Freddy said as he exited off the highway. A hellhound burst over the barricade and landed on the Hummer. Lindsey ducked down and I tried to hit it with the field hockey stick. It caught it in its mouth. I didn't realize that I should let go until it jerked its head and yanked me out of the hummer.

"Peter!" I landed hard and stumbled along the ground, rolling into some grass near a house. I rolled onto my back just as it pounced onto me. I put the field hockey stick into its mouth to stop its jaws and managed to push him off me. I could feel my skin heating up and I stood up, running after the Hummer as it turned around. I felt a big paw, hitting me in the back. And I fell again. I managed to stand up again and I kept running toward the hummer just as I saw one of the hellhounds bash into the hummer, tipping it onto its side. I could hear screaming from inside and I could see Freddy trying to roll up the sunroof. I couldn't imagine what would happen if one of them got hurt. Especially if it was my fault. I got knocked down again and I looked down just as one of the hellhounds bit my shoe and started dragging me away. I punched at its face and then finally slipped out of my shoe just as a black bubble formed around it and it vanished, taking my shoe with it.

"What the…" I mumbled as I backed away from it. I finally stood up and started running toward the Hummer again and watched as a hellhound broke through the sunroof and started trying to climb inside. I ran at it and, for some reason, punched its back. It yelped like I actually hurt it and then turned to me. It snapped at me and I dodged, taking two handfuls of its fur and then spinning, tossing it away from hummer. It stood back up and started running at me. I faced it like a matador to a raging bull and at the right moment dodged out of the way. It smacked into the Hummer, denting the roof, but tipping it back over. I quickly climbed and told Freddy to floor it. I'd never seen anyone floor an automobile so hard. We screeched on our tires and took off down the road before turning around and plowing into the hellhound as it recovered from its skull to car collision.

"Almost there!" Freddy shouted as we turned onto a narrow road. "Just hold on!" I looked out the back and saw that the hellhounds were still chasing us, snarling and chomping beasts hoping still for an afternoon snack. He turned again and we started driving offroad and up a hill where a large pine tree stood, a small yellow piece of fabric hanging from one of the branches. "Peter, stand up out of the sunroof and yell 'Peleus.'"

"Peleus? Who's Peleus?" I asked as I started to stand.

"Just do it, Peter!" Lindsey said shoving me toward the sunroof.

I took a deep breath. "Peleus!" I shouted and next to the tree I saw some movement. A moment later a large beast shot over the Hummer and landed right into the crowd of Hellhounds.

"Meet Peleus. Camp guardian." Freddy said with a bit of a smile as he finally drove over the hill.

"You have a dragon!" I asked as I turned around and watched as Peleus singlehandedly destroyed the hellhounds. The Hummer died and we stopped on the top of the hill next to the tree.

"What's with the golden towel?" Lindsey asked. I looked over and saw a shining piece of wool, flapping lightly in the breeze.

"Oh, that's just—"

"Is that the Golden Fleece? As in THE Golden Fleece?" I said as I climbed out of the top of the Hummer and ran to get a closer look.

"Yeah. It provides our protection." Freddy said, leaning on the tree. I looked over and saw Peleus, the large dragon, lumbering toward us up the hill. It yawned a little and burped up a Hellhound tooth at my feet. I picked up it up and turned it over in my hand.

"This is cool…" I said with a smile before the sound of crunching metal. Peleus gripped the Hummer door in his teeth and yanked it off its hinges. My jaw dropped as Peleus started to tear my mom's car apart, ripping the seats out with his powerful jaws. It climbed in and curled up again, closing its eyes.

"Here's your bag." Lindsey said, shoving it into my chest, laughing a little bit. I grabbed it and then turned toward her and my jaw dropped further. We had made it. Freddy put his arm up in presentation of the view.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."


	8. Chapter 8

I searched through my bag for a moment before pulling out a fresh pair of sneakers, stowing my TARDIS shoes in their place. I slipped the shoes on then looked over the camp from the spot on the hill. It was a little fascinating to see the campgrounds. I found it odd that all of these super powerful people of varying ages would choose the most secure setting for save-the-world training to be a summer camp as quaint as the one I was currently looking out over.

"So, how is it that this is just staying hidden completely?" Lindsey asked, collecting a few things from the wreckage of the Hummer. Freddy picked a few specks of mud from his legs then looked over the camp.

"Well, if you see through the mist like we can, then you see the camp. If not then you see a strawberry…orchard? Is it orchard?" Freddy said unsurely, looking around a moment. "Farm, I think. Yeah. Farm sounds right. A strawberry farm."

"So, do we actually grow strawberries?" I asked, my stomach grumbling. I thought about it and I hadn't really had food since lunch and that was nothing substantial. "I could really use some strawberries or…something."

"We'll get there." Freddy said, patting me on the shoulder. He looked toward the camp and cleared his throat, looking back at Lindsey and me. "It looks like the welcoming party is here." Freddy said, putting his hands on my arms and leading me to the top of the hill, looking down toward the camp. He did the same to Lindsey and I looked down as 4 kids in orange shirts, marching up the hill, being led by a tall girl with brown hair. As she grew closer, I saw that she was big. Not freakishly big, but a lot bigger than I was. She finally reached the top and looked at Freddy and nodded then narrowed her eyes at me and Lindsey.

She had bright blue eyes and brown hair that hung down a little bit past her shoulders. I stared at her as she put her hair up into a ponytail. She was short and thin, but by the definition in her arms and the broadness of her shoulders, I could tell that she was strong. Not only that, but based on how she held herself, she knew she was strong, too. I felt Lindsey's arm brush against mine before I felt a few of her fingers hook around mine. She was warm and comforting and in this strange new place, I needed warm and comforting.

She walked right up to me and looked me in the eye. She looked me up and down then moved to Lindsey's hand with mine and looked at the two of us funny, the gaze focused on me mostly. She rolled her eyes and sighed then looked to Lindsey who looked just about as nervous as I did, her blonde hair flecked with dirt and in a wild miss around her head. After a few moments of awkward silence and me being mostly confused and nervous, the girl cleared her throat.

"Jackson. Walker. Lead these two ahead toward camp. Bring them to the fire to be claimed." She said with a nod, walking toward Freddy. "Albie, stay with me. Freddy, you doing alright? Looks like Peleus has a new home."

"Yeah. I'm doing well, Jillian." Freddy said with a sigh. "It was…a pretty wild ride, to be quite honest."

"Come on, you two. I'm Jackson. This is Walker." A large built black guy said a muss of black hair hanging around his face. The other one, Walker, was short, but looked like he could take on a semi in a headbutt contest.

"I'm Peter." I said with a nod, extending my hand. Jackson shook it, but Walker didn't. I didn't mind. His hands looked kind of gross.

"I'm Lindsey." She said, shaking Jackson's hand as well.

"So, umm….Question: Claiming…" I said with a sigh. "What's-her-face. Jillian. She said the fire to be claimed. That sounds umm….Bad. And not really something I would like to do."

"No, no. It's just a campfire." Jackson said with a nod. He started walking toward the camp and in a few moments, we were right in the middle of everything. "Some of the gods like a little bit of fanfare and if we bring the unclaimed to the middle of the camp, then more people see." Suddenly, a bright light shone right next to me. I felt Lindsey tighten her grasp on my fingers and I looked over to see her glowing. Not only that, but music was playing from out of nowhere and suddenly a bright golden bow appeared over her head, making me squint at how bright it was.

"That's Apollo, alright. Such a showboat." Walker said, shaking his head.

"Apollo. Just like Freddy said!" Lindsey said with a bright white grin. She stopped glowing and immediately threw her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. "This is so exciting!" She pulled away and then looked above my head, expectantly. She had a bright smile on her face, but it started to fall when nothing happened. I looked around at the crowd that had started to gather, but I shrugged and Lindsey pulled away.

"You should have been claimed by now…" Jackson said unsurely. "This is odd. We'll just give it a little bit more time. Until then we'll put you in Hermes Cabin."

"But…wouldn't Hermes be a little peeved with me for living in his cabin? I mean…he's not my dad. At least, if he is, he's late." I said with a sigh.

"Hermes is never late." Jackson said with a chuckle. "He typically doesn't mind. They don't stay there very long."

"Right. Because they get claimed now at age 13 because of that war." I said quietly. "Well, maybe he's busy. Or something. Can gods be busy?" My question fell on deaf ears and the crowd scattered just as Jillian's angry and fiery eyes appeared in front of mine.

"Cell phone. Now." She said, angrily holding out her hand. I pulled out my phone and handed it to her, feeling confused again.

"I probably don't get reception out here." I went on to explain, but it was needed all that much as I watched her spike my phone into the dirt then stomp it to death. "Hey! What the hell!" I say shoving her. She barely moved and her hands quickly grabbed my wrists, twisting them painfully.

"You do not touch me." Jillian said quietly. I felt my skin heating up. I didn't understand yet what was it exactly that made my skin heat up every time. Anger was typically the most surefire way, so far. Honestly at this point, I needed to get a hang of whatever this was. I felt my skin burning and I started to smoke and Jillian let go of me.

"Back up, people!" I shouted, closing my eyes and focusing on taking deep breaths. "It's just a phone. It was my fault." I told myself, trying to calm down and not burst into flames again. I'm a big fan of not bursting into flames. I felt my skin cool down finally and I opened my eyes to see everyone staring at me and backed away, except Jillian. She looked…unimpressed.

"Get in line, newcomers. We're going over the rules." She said. Lindsey quickly stood next to me again.

"Jillian, let's just bring them to the big house. Chiron should know about Peter not getting claimed anyway." Freddy said with a shrug.

"Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up again." I said with a chuckle. I really wasn't happy with this 'system' they had created for claiming. I'm not sure what I expected with all of this, but finding out what kind of powers I should be expected to have would be nice. I mean, usually puberty involves acne or growth spurts or some hormonal nonsense. I'm pretty sure no one expected spontaneous combustion.

"You said he might be Ares." Jillian said with a nod. "I can deal with my own. Clarisse wouldn't just let Chiron take care of things."

"You are not your cousin, Jillian. I've never seen anything like this. Chiron needs to know." Freddy said. Jillian turned to me and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, Walker. Does Peter seem all that scary to you?" Jillian asked. Walker looked me up and down and shook his head.

"Nah…About as scary as a canary." Walker said, nudging Jillian.

"Well, I'm not really trying to be scary. What would be the point?" I said with a shrug.

"Oh, you probably wouldn't hurt a fly, would you, Princess?" Walker said, taking a step toward me. I rolled my eyes.

"Let me guess. I'm a girl. I'm gay. I have no genitalia. Come on. Show some originality, would you?" I shrugged. I played it off, but I could already feel my skin heating up a little bit. Call me short-tempered.

"So, you're just gonna lay down and die like that. Well, you're definitely not Ares." Walker said, getting in my face as best he could due to his state of being shorter than me.

"Well, if being like you two is the prerequisite for being a child of Ares, then there's a handful of meatheaded jocks at my school who love to ditch that 'good for nothing' book learning to come out here and be butt buddies with you." I smiled, but that was soon stopped when Walker raised his fist and Jillian caught it. "Your attempt at angering me has backfired, hasn't it, pal?" I sighed. "Well, better luck next time. No fireworks today, it seems."

"Don't you want to control it?" Jillian said, letting go of Walker's fist who dropped it to his side. "Freddy told me you pass out every time you use your power. So, come on. Get angry. Learn to control it."

"I'm not some sideshow! I was forced to leave my home and now you want to prod me like a caged bear to see if I'll ride a unicycle." I shook my head. "I don't even know why I'm here."

"I don't know why you're here either." Walker finally said. "I mean, Lindsey is here and she seems anxious. She's claimed, but she seems excited. When I came here I was glad I finally had a place I belong! You come here. Make jokes. What are you doing here?"

"That's nice for you since you're claimed. I hope that goes well. Maybe later tonight we can share a gallon of ice cream and talk about our feelings and how nervous I am."

"Peter…" I turned to look at Lindsey, but that's when I felt a large fist hit me in the stomach. I lifted off the ground slightly before crumpling to my knees and looking down at Walker's muddy sneakers.

"Angry, now? No?" Walker said before hauling me up to my feet and punching me in the stomach again. I fell again and coughed as I felt the wind knocked out of me. Unfortunately, I got angry again. I put my hands on the ground in front of me as I wheezed to catch my breath and I could feel myself burning up.

"You wanted to see me angry!" I gripped the dirt under my hands and I saw the ground crack around my hands. Grass seemed to wither around me and suddenly, I saw the cracks grow and glow a bright orange the glow seeming to come from my hands. People started to gasp and back away and I stood, glaring at Walker who was looking in surprise at my hands. I looked down and saw that my hands were dripping with bright orange liquid, it looked like lava. I held my hand out and imagined myself holding a ball of magma and one formed in my hand, a swirling ball of hot molten rock.

"Peter." I looked over quickly, my heart still beating rapidly, my skin white hot, my hands dripping lava, to see Lindsey looking at me concerned.

"What's going on here?" I looked past Lindsey and saw a man in a wheelchair pulling up and looking at me in surprise. I closed my eyes and stepped away from Lindsey. I needed to regain control. I needed to calm down. It was odd because I didn't feel tired this time. At least, not tired like I was when I exploded or when I became the human hurricane. I felt like I was in my element. After a moment, I felt my heart return to normal and I cooled down. It wasn't for another second later when I realized, I still had the ball of lava in my hand.

"Chiron, we were on our way with the new campers." Freddy said, trying to hide me a little bit.

"Good." He said, looking right at me. "I'd like to have a word with this…young man here." He said, his eyes moving toward the ball of lava in my hand, still dripping and glowing orange.

"Oh, sorry." I looked at the lava then looked around, not sure what to do with it. I finally just closed my hand around it, and it vanished, my hand looking no different. "Let's…go then, I guess." I finally said, looking up and trying to ignore all of the terrified looks of my fellow campers.

"Good first day, Peter." Freddy said, leading me after Chiron. "Believe it or not, there have been worse."

"Well," I sighed, shouldering my bag. "The day's not done, yet."


	9. Chapter 9

Six of us, Lindsey, Jillian, Walker, Freddy, Chiron, and I, all walked toward a large light blue house near the bottom of what Freddy called 'Half-Blood Hill.' He explained that Chiron, for comfort's sake, Chiron hides in his magic wheelchair that hides his horse legs. I was a little disappointed, but I was sure I'd get to see him in all of his centaur-y majesty soon enough.

We walked up to the porch and Chiron turned to look at us. "Jillian, Walker, Freddy, I'd like to see you. Peter. Lindsey. Please, stay here. I'd like to officially welcome you, but first…" He opened the door and wheeled through being closely followed by Freddy, Jillian, and Walker. The door closed and then it was quiet. I looked over at Lindsey who had sat down on the railing, picking some gravel off her legs and shorts. I sighed and moved to sit on the railing on the other side of the entryway onto the porch.

"I'm sorry for…making your day incredibly difficult." I said finally, staring at my hands. I wondered what the trick was to getting the lava to come back. Hopefully without the punching and then smoking skin and the mini volcanoes.

"It's okay." She said quietly. I looked over and she looked back at me a little hesitantly. "I mean, Freddy and I would be Hellhound food if it weren't for you."

"Well…you would have snuck in under the radar if it hadn't been for my little cellular mobile device." I said with small chuckle. She stood and moved over to me, leaning on the railing next to me. "And I'm sure it wasn't a good start to your street cred to show up with the guy who has a bit of a dark side." She giggled softly and put a hand on my arm.

"Are you kidding? I'm probably a celebrity now." She said with a giggle. I smiled and looked down at my feet, swinging them back and forth. "And I'd rather have been on your side then on that Walker guys'."

"What do you mean?" I asked, a half-smile on my face. She grinned and sat down next to me. Close. Not romantically close, but blushingly close.

"Well, you know that big green guy?" She said after a moment. I paused.

"Frankenstein."

"No. The…big green guy. Edward Norton."

"Oh! The Hulk. Yeah. I know of him." I said with a laugh. She elbowed me, rolling her eyes.

"Well, that guy had a bit of a dark side, too. And I'm just glad I'm on the right side of it, is what I'm saying." She nodded and smiled at me. "I am Liv Tyler."

"Lead singer of Aerosmith." I said, pretending to not know who she was talking about. She sighed.

"No. That's Stephen Tyler. I'm talking about his daughter."

"Oh, my bad. The Elf chick from Lord of the Rings."

"Right." She said with a nod then elbowed me again, a sly grin on her face.

"So…God of the sun and music and the arts and healing." I said with a nod. "That's exciting." I said with a nod. Lindsey giggled.

"You're funny, Peter." She said with a smile. "I am excited." She took a deep breath. "It just feels good to belong somewhere, you know?"

"Belong somewhere? Please. You?" I asked in disbelief. "You're involved in like…everything. I'm surprised you even remembered my name."

"Oh? Do you think it's been that long since we played four square together?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "Why does everyone have this idea that I'm so—"

"Because you're exactly the kind of person who would be. You're in choir. You're a cheerleader. You're beautiful. You're smart. You are involved. Any other kind of person exactly like you has either shoved me into a locker or is dating someone who shoved me into a locker. You included." I said, my voice trailing off.

"Well, you seem to be judging a book by its cover, don't you think?" She replied quietly. I looked over and she seemed kind of hurt.

"That might be true, but we were…best friends for a long time and now I don't even know you, you know?"

"Well, you moved. You moved and I was sad. My parents decided to direct that sadness into something else. That something else was volleyball. Volleyball turned into gymnastics. That turned into cheer. Cheer turned into voice lessons. And that made me the busiest kid at Crefeld. When you came back, I barely recognized you and I could have guessed that you didn't recognize me."

"And the way the social circles worked out, you were in the center and I wasn't even on your radar." I finished, looking into her eyes. The door to the big house opened and Jillian walked out, being followed closely by Walker who looked like a kicked puppy.

"Peter. Lindsey. You can come in." Chiron called out to us. We exchanged glances then walked inside to the center room where a ping pong table sat, folding chairs placed around it. "Please, have a seat." I found a seat at the end of the table. Lindsey found a seat a couple down from me. "I'm sure Mr. D will be back shortly. He's at his son's wedding, I believe." Chiron said with a nod, wheeling his chair up to the table.

"Mr. D?" Lindsey asked quietly, turning to me for a moment.

"Dionysus. He's the Camp Director here. It's a bit of a long story." Chiron said, turning toward the Diet Coke cans on the chair for a moment then turning back to me. "Lindsey," He finally said, turning to her and smiling. "I heard you were claimed as you came in. Not only that, but you have an affinity for healing as you healed Peter here on the way."

"Oh, yes, sir. It seems so." She said with a nervous chuckle. "I wasn't sure how I actually did it, but his face looks good, now."

"You think so?" I said with a grin. She blushed and looked back at Chiron who cleared his throat.

"Well, it's good to have you here. We'll get you to your cabin short—" There was a knock on the door and it opened. Freddy walked in being followed by a thin boy with curly light brown hair. He was pale and was wearing an orange shirt that read 'Camp Half-Blood.' "Freddy. Dimitri. Please, come in. Lindsey, I'd like you to meet Dimitri Volkoff. He's the head—Well, interim head—counselor of Apollo Cabin."

"Lindsey. It is nice to meet another one of my sisters." Dimitri said with a thick Russian accent, extending his hand. Lindsey stood a little hesitantly and shook his hand, smiling at him.

"Nice to meet you, too." Lindsey said with a nod, grabbing her bag. "Why interim?"

"The previous counselor, Ralph, he's gone missing." Dimitri said with a shrug. I was a little confused as to why it was a shrug, considering that this was his brother he was talking about.

"Along with two other campers." Chiron added.

"What happened? Where did they go?"

"We lost a satyr and three incoming demigods from the west coast on their way here. We sent out a quest to go find them and Ralph led the quest. That was 2 months ago and we haven't seen them since." Freddy said quietly as if he was worried that people outside the house were listening.

"We've lost a good amount of people recently…." Chiron said quietly before turning to Dimitri. "Mr. Volkoff, would you please show Ms. Blackman to the Apollo Cabin and find her a bunk?"

"Of course, sir." Dimitri said with a bow.

"Maybe find her a weapon while you're at it, too." Chiron added with a smile. Dimitri bowed again and took Lindsey's bag from her. "Welcome to Camp, Lindsey!" Chiron said as the two of them walked out the door. The door closed and I then found myself under a questioning gaze of the old centaur. Freddy took a seat next to Chiron and looked at me.

"I told Chiron everything about…everything." Freddy said quietly.

"How much everything?" I asked hesitantly.

"The fight at Lindsey's house. The giants. The explosion in the gym. The desk. The hellh—"

"Alright. Everything. Got it." I said, feeling a little scared. I mean, Chiron knew everything there was about demigods and the look on his face said that he hadn't ever heard this before.

"You said that his mother's story exhibited a description of Ares?" Chiron asked Freddy. Freddy nodded.

"But he would have been claimed. He's already 14." Freddy replied. "I mean, how I missed him last year is…beyond me. It's like his scent just appeared a month ago."

"Lindsey is also 14?"

"Yes, but she skipped a grade and just turned 14 not long ago." Freddy said. I watched in mild discomfort as all of this went on. I really hated being talked about like I wasn't there.

"And there's nothing odd about here, that you've witnessed?" Chiron asked. "Other than the healing?"

"Nothing. She seems like the average child of Apollo." Freddy said with a shrug.

"And Peter."

"Unclaimed. Unidentifiable."

"Undeniably present, too." I said with an 'ahem.' "I'm pretty sure I can answer any questions needed."

"Who is your father?" Chiron asked, raising an eyebrow. I paused then narrowed my eyes.

"Beats me, but it doesn't look like you know either." I said with a sigh. "Now, I'm unclaimed, right? So, I belong in Hermes, right? I mean, we're all fairly clueless in the matter and I'm pretty much starving here, so once Dionysus comes back, he may be able to shine some Olympian light on the subject, right? For now, talking about this isn't going to solve much, you know?" Chiron stared at me for a moment and then nodded.

"You're right. As much as it pains me, you are right." He said with a sigh. "I wish that we could figure this out, but there's no point in having you wait around here. It's obvious you belong here. We just…aren't sure where here." Chiron sighed. "I'll need to speak to the gods. In the meantime, Freddy," Chiron wheeled away from the table and Freddy stood, "Would you show Peter around? Show him the Hermes Cabin and then take him to the mess hall for some food."

"Yes, sir." Freddy said, starting toward the door. I stood and grabbed my bag, opening the door for Freddy who walked out.

"Peter?" I turned and saw Chiron who was headed for one of the backrooms of the house. "When you're controlling a bunch of wind or when you're about to explode, what does it feel like?" Chiron asked quietly.

"It feels…powerful." I said after a moment. "Like nothing can stop me and I won't stop for anything."

"In a good way?" He asked. I closed my eyes and remembered the feeling of twisting the wind around me in the Hummer earlier. The temptation to destroy everything in my path. I shook it away and opened my eyes.

"I don't know, sir." I answered. "I honestly don't know." Chiron nodded, thinking for a moment. He finally sighed then disappeared into one of the backrooms. I took a deep breath and looked back at Freddy who put an arm around my shoulders.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Peter."


	10. Chapter 10

_Okay, so I know I don't make notes very often, but this is somewhat important. Not really, but just...go with it. Anyway, when I first conceptualized TINM in my head, I envisioned something that was big and how I've planned it and doing the prep to write all 5 parts, I have prepared it to be big in more ways than one. One way is the scale of the adventure, which you'll see as the story progresses. The other is the relationships._

_If you read Hunter, which most of you probably didn't because no one did ( .com for future reference), there really weren't many relationships. Mostly because of the main character, but even when they did come into play they were not so great in my opinion. And that is something i'm trying to fix in TINM. So far, you've been presented with two options more or less: Jillian and Lindsey. Now this was fully my intention. I want a shipping war to break out. I want people to be killed over-No, I'm only kidding, but I really do want this to be a center of involvement for the reader and the way I'm going to do that is as follows:_

_I have planned endings for both ships. I am prepared to end it either way, but I don't know who to end it with. That's where you come in. In the reviews, I want you to vote for who you ship or who you think should be endgame. You can vote multiple times and you can vote for either, but I'll keep a running tally and whichever ship is in the lead when I write the ending will be endgame. So read! And vote! And tell your friends to vote for your ship! Thank you and now for your irregularly scheduled Peter chapter._

* * *

><p>I was hesitant to move around camp. Lindsey was welcomed into camp. I was happy for her, to be honest, but I did find myself feeling jealous. Who would choose being some strange outcast over being a person readily accepted. I was glad that she was there. And I was glad to have Freddy. I hadn't known him long, but he was familiar. And that was good for me.<p>

He led me back toward the fire where Lindsey got claimed and now that the crowd had cleared, and I wasn't in rage mode, I noticed the cabins around. In the shape of a closed horse shoe, were twenty cabins, but it looked like there was space for more. We stood by the fire and Freddy turned to me.

"These are the cabins." He said with a nod. "At that end is Zeus' cabin."

"Wait…There was that oath thing." I said, remembering back to his earlier explanation of everything.

"Yeah. Just ignore that for the most part. All of them kind of broke it already, so…" Freddy shrugged and pointed to the cabin next to Zeus. "That's Hera's. She doesn't have kids, but if we hadn't built her one then we'd be a little soot mark on her palm. We try not to go in there." I nodded and Freddy moved on. "Now, from those two cabins, you can tell the rest of them.

"Well, the blue one is probably Poseidon and the green one is probably Demeter, so I'd assume that those are gods and those are goddesses." I deduced, pointing to the left and then right. "I just saw Lindsey walk into that one, so that's Apollo. That one looks like a place, I would never want to go, so I'm guessing that's Ares. That one is smoking, so I'll guess Hephaestus. Meaning Hermes is on the end." I turned to Freddy. "There's a problem though."

"What do you mean?" He asked, looking around.

"There's 7 Olympian gods and 5 Olympian goddesses. Not counting Hades, that is. I'm guessing Hades is that big death-y looking one at the very end there next to the rainbow one which I'll guess is Iris." I turned to Freddy again. "Does Hestia have a cabin then? She can't have kids, but neither can Hera or Artemis, right?"

"Why do you know so much about this kind of stuff?" Freddy asked, a smile on his face.

"Well…MythoMagic." I said with a shrug. Freddy chuckled.

"No. Hestia does not have a cabin, but we gave her this fire to represent the hearth. Dionysus has the cabin on the end of the goddesses." Freddy said, pointing to an empty looking cabin that's covered in vines.

"Interesting." I said with a nod. "What are all of those cabins in the line then?"

"Well, after that war that I told you about, we had to build new cabins for the minor gods and Hades." Freddy said. "There's Hecate on the end. Tyche. Hebe. Nike. Nemesis. Hypnos. Then Iris and Hades."

"Hypnos? Really?" I asked with the image of a bunch of people falling asleep in the middle of a fight.

"Say what you will, man, but they were vital in the insurgence a few years ago." Freddy said with a nod. "Saved a lot of lives. Not to mention the fact that if you ever need a nap, just go there."

"I'll remember that. Now before I get settled in, can I get my stomach settled?" I asked. "It's currently swearing at me for not feeding it."

"Yeah. Come on. The mess hall is this way." Freddy said, walking toward the top of the cabins. "Then after that we'll drop off your stuff and then we can set you up with a weapon." We headed past Zeus and Hera cabins toward a large outdoor pavilion, tables riddled throughout, a large crack in the ground decorating the floor. "Don't ask about the floor." He said quietly, like he could read my mind. I nodded as we entered and I got in line behind him, filling my tray to the limit with food.

"Oh, my heavens. I am going to eat well here." I said with a grin as I followed Freddy to a table near the back. The whole courtyard was empty except for him and me who sat across from each other.

"This is the Hermes table. You'll typically have your meals here with your cabinmates, but since your unclaimed you can probably just sit anywhere. I won't tell anyone." Freddy explained with a chuckle. "Oh. For future reference." He took his glass of the table and then spoke to it and set it down. I watched as it filled up with a steaming liquid. "Chamomile tea. Lovely. Just tell your glass what you want and it makes it. It can be anything. We had a camper here a while ago who would test the cups and see if he could name something that it couldn't make. He never succeeded."

"Did he die or did he leave?" I asked as I stared at my cup in amazement.

"Umm… both. In that order." Freddy said with a nod. I didn't realize the oddness of that sentence until after I told my cup to fill up with Game Fuel Mountain Dew.

"That doesn't make sense."

"Well, it was a bit of a long story. I'm sure you'll hear it if you stick around. Almost everyone who has been here for at least 4 or 5 years has at least one Hunter story."

"Hunter?" I asked. Freddy nodded and took a deep breath.

"Well, Artemis doesn't have kids, but she has a bunch of girls who become her hunters. She hates men. There were exceptions until Hunter. Hunter just ended any chance at Artemis liking guys. Anyway, she allowed a guy to enter into her hunters, due to certain circumstances, but things got a little messy and…yeah. It's a long story." Freddy paraphrased. I nodded.

"I'll listen to it later." I took a sip of my drink then took a large bite of food, my hunger almost immediately sated. "So, now that Lindsey and I are both here safe, what's next for Freddy Lipton?" I asked, taking another bite. Freddy chewed into a pop can.

"Well, I'll show you around for the rest of the day, campfire tonight. I might get one more day, but then I'll probably be sent off to some other school to look for more of you." He said with a shrug. "I'll need to speak with the council and my uncle, but odds are I'll be sent somewhere."

"Oh…" I muttered at the news. I kept eating for a few moments and I finally looked up at Freddy. "That sucks, man."

"Hey, it's just part of the job, you know?" He said with a small chuckle. His laugh died down and the two of us fell quiet. We are in silence until we were done. "Okay. I guess, we'll get you settled into Hermes. Let's go." Freddy said once we were both done and we had taken care of our trays. The two of us left the mess hall and headed back to the cabins, Freddy pointing out the arena to me in the distance and the climbing wall in the other direction.

"So, what kind of training do we do, typically?" I asked as we made our way through camp.

"Well, a lot of it is exercise. We run combat drills and strategic drills. There's basic weapon fighting. Greek lessons. History lessons. Wilderness training. Some people are chosen to work in the strawberry fields. Canoeing. Umm…Volleyball. Forging. And every Friday we play Capture the flag." Freddy finished.

"Capture the Flag? So this is really just a summer camp. What does Capture the Flag do to help us?" I asked with a laugh. Freddy shrugged.

"Oh, I don't know. Ask a child of Athena." He said with a laugh. We finally arrived in front of the cabin and I walked up to the porch, opening the door and walking in. It was empty except for one person who looked up in surprise as I walked in.

"What is—" I was going to ask, but suddenly I felt the walls creak. They groaned like there was this immense pressure and suddenly, I was flying backward out of the cabin and into the middle of the cabins.

"Peter, what in the world!" Freddy asked, running over as I landed hard on my back. I groaned and laid there for a moment. I could sense a bit of a crowd growing and I finally sat up, glancing around.

"What just happened?" I groaned, looking at Hermes cabin. I finally looked at Freddy who looked as confused as I was.

"It looked like Hermes Cabin shot you out like a cannonball out of a cannon." He said quietly. Freddy helped me up and I looked around again before walking toward the cabin again. I was about to walk through the door, but as I walked to the porch, the door slammed shut in my face.

"Umm…Explain this, someone, please?" I said, turning around.

"Well, maybe…" Freddy said, looking very unsure. "Actually, I've never seen anything like this before. It seems like Hermes is...rejecting you?" He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Can we try another cabin? Maybe it has to do with me and not Hermes." I said, rubbing my back. Freddy and I turned toward the cabin next to Hermes. Freddy walked in first and nothing happened. He said hello to one person then walked back out. I nodded then headed inside, looking around and then noticing a quiet hissing noise. I furrowed my brow and looked at the other people in the cabin who were looking around me. I looked and saw several nozzles, each one resembling the nozzle of a flamethrower. "Oh, for the love of—" They suddenly all turned on and I was engulfed in flame. I could feel the heat, but I remained uninjured, fortunately.

I was still getting used to my heat resistance and this was one case where I was glad I had it. I closed my eyes and I could suddenly feel the flames around me, like I could talk to them. I could see them without actually seeing them. I finally opened my eyes again and somehow I manipulated the flames away from me, forcing them back up their tubes and extinguishing the sources of the flames.

"Now that was cool…" I said, looking at the flame throwers and then at myself. I turned around again and waved to Freddy. "I think I'm getting the hang of this." I said, but I could feel the energy I used and it was pretty much all of the Mountain Dew I had had with my food earlier. Suddenly I felt something smack me in the side hard, shoving me into the doorway and then out of the cabin, knocking me down onto the porch. After a second, I realized that it was the door.

"Wow….Hephaestus, too." Freddy said, walking over and helping me up. I brushed myself off and I looked to find that I now had a large crowd watching me, Lindsey and Dimitri being part of that crowd. Freddy and I tried to ignore it.

"Are we just going to try all of the gods?" I asked, still feeling achy from the earlier attack by the Hermes cabin. Freddy chuckled, but soon sighed.

"What choice do we have? You've got to sleep somewhere, right?" He said quietly, walking past Apollo to Ares. "There's no way you're Apollo, but Zeus and Poseidon are definitely not to be trifled with."

"Oh, and Ares is?" I asked, feeling a little worried as to what might happen here. I took a deep breath and walked into the cabin, immediately moving to the center of the cabin. I looked around the cabin, observing the decoration. I spied Jillian in her bunk at the end of the cabin. She stood just as the wall shook in front of me.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, walking toward me. I observed the wall behind her, a large mural of what looked to be wars throughout time. On one end were soldiers fighting with swords and shields then at the other end, modern soldiers fighting in a desert. The wall shook again and I took a step away.

"Does that wall always do that?" I asked Jillian. She stopped and raised her eyebrows. She finally turned around just as the wall seemed to burst open, spectral soldiers of every era, bursting forth and heading straight for me. I backed away more, but I heard the door slam closed behind me. I finally drew the slingshot in my pocket and fired a pellet at the first one. It sailed right through it and tapped Jillian in the back of the head. She looked back at me angrily and then finally noticed that the ghostly horde was headed for me. She reached into her pocket and in seconds was holding several spears in her hands. She spun one and ran after the ghosts, slicing one in half, but they kept coming. I dove through a bunk and slid under another one, finding myself back to back with Jillian, a wave of ghostly soldiers circling us like sharks teasing their pending attack.

I didn't know what was happening. Here I am back to back with someone who hates me, about to die for trying to find a bed to sleep in. Again, I didn't know what was happening, but I was done with dealing with it. I grabbed a spear out of Jillian's hand and gripped it firmly, swinging it like a bat at the closest ghost. It slipped out of my hand and killed two ghosts before clattering to the ground.

"Good job. Now I have one less spear to kill all these ghosts with." She said before impaling a nearby ghost on a spear then throwing the spear into two more. "I can't believe I'm gonna die next to such a sorry warrior." She said with a roll of her eyes. I felt my skin immediately heat up. I realized that maybe if I got angry, I could stop these things, but it was just a matter of getting angry enough. Controling a constant source of fire was one thing, but creating fire from nothing was completely different. I tried to focus, but I felt a sharp pain in my arm and I shouted as a sword from an ghostly Japanese Samurai stabbed into my arm.

I cried out and dropped to a knee, clutching my arm which was now pouring blood. Everything got cold for a second and it felt like I lost control of my own body. Something took over for me. Like an autopilot. I reached up with my good arm and dragged Jillian down next to me before standing up. I closed my eyes and held my hands up. For a second, it seemed like everything slowed down, but I realized that I was calm. My heartbeat slowed down and the pain in my arm subsided just long enough for a warm feeling deep in the pit of my stomach start to grow. It expanded and expanded and suddenly everything got quiet. My eyes opened and I was glowing. All around me the ghosts were vanishing in puffs of smoke. The last one disappeared and I finally dropped to my knees, the glowing weakening until being completely gone. It seemed like the autopilot shut off and I gasped as I suddenly felt tired. I wasn't sure what it was that I had just done, but it took a lot out of me. I coughed quietly until I remembered that Jillian was also in the cabin. I looked at her and she looked at me in confusion.

"Yeah…Yeah…I don't know either." I said before finally passing out.


	11. Chapter 11

_Alrighty. So, it has been a while since I updated and to be honest, I kind of forgot. I had a REALLY busy summer and I didn't do much writing, but I'm doing more now, so expect to see more. Thank you all so, so, so much for reading and reviewing._

_Oh, and don't forget to vote in the comments who you ship Peter with! The vote WILL change the ending of the whole series._

_Again, thanks for reading, everyone!_

_~Alex_

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><p>I didn't really dream while I was asleep, but I more just kind of relived the times I had used my powers. The feeling I had. That sense of extreme power that I felt every time except the last one. The time in Ares cabin. It was the opposite sense of power and carnage that I felt in the hummer and I felt in the gym. It was a sense of calm. A sense of peace. Like I was sucking all of the conflict out of the room.<p>

All of that thinking only made me more curious as to where I belonged here. Hermes didn't want me. Hephaestus tried to kill me. Ares almost did kill me. I was positive that I didn't belong any of those places anyway. I was thinking about controlling the fire from the flame throwers. It was so easy. That was the feeling of power again. I could have forced the flames down to the fuel source and wherever that was would have exploded. I didn't though and it felt like I was holding myself back. Whatever kind of reflex or autopilot that came on when I used the powers I had, needed to be gained control of.

When I did wake up, which didn't take much, I woke up to a face that surprised me more than any other emotion. It was Jillian. She looked at me concernedly until she saw that I was awake, when her concern turned to confusion then to panic then to resentment.

"It's about time you woke up. You've been out for 45 minutes." She said with a scoff. I nodded and sat up a little, my arm aching which made me cringe. I looked down at myself and found that I was wearing an orange camp shirt. I pushed aside the sentimentality of the moment and looked at my arm, pushing my sleeve up to reveal a thin white scar. "Nectar. Drink of the gods." She said quietly. I looked back at her, fixing my sleeve.

"You okay?" I asked in an equal tone of quiet. She nodded, taking a deep breath. "Good. I apologize for the…whatever the hell that was." In a typical situation, I would have made some sort of sarcastic comment, but when I was so confused like this, I just wasn't in the mood. I took a moment to rub the sleep from my eyes then looked at her again.

"It was the Ares Cabin security system. My cousin told me about it." She said with a nod. I was surprised how nice she seemed to be acting. I was expecting a lot of yelling. Not quiet conversation. "I think all of the cabins have security systems, varying in…severity."

"Well, 3 down. 17 to go." I said, chuckling quietly. Jillian laughed quietly as well and I smiled at her.

"My question is why would you trigger them?" She asked, standing up from her chair next to my bed. I briefly felt scared that she was going to suspect me of something and kill me, but she refrained from doing that. I was pleased.

"I honestly don't know. I just…I just wish that I had a cabin to sleep in." I said with a sigh, pushing the covers off.

"Well, I would welcome you into Ares, but I don't think that my dad would be…pleased." Jillian said with a sigh.

"It's okay. I still have tons of cabins left to get kicked out of." I said, feeling a little more comfortable. She smiled and then paced at the foot of my bed for a few moments. She seemed to be debating something internally and I decided to interrupt the conversation. "Can I ask you a question?" She looked at me in slight surprise then nodded.

"Yeah, but I uh…I guess I have one after yours." She said, leaning over the foot of my bed.

"Well, you talk about your cousin and I'm curious if—"

"She's my cousin and my half-sister. Ares slept with my mom and my aunt. No, not at the same time."" She said, looking annoyed. I paused and looked at her in mild surprise.

"Well, I was actually going to ask if there was a special title for that. Like…cousin, once removed or something like that." I said before cracking a smile. She smiled back and then looked down. She really was kind of pretty. It's not obvious until she smiles. Then it's impossible to miss.

"Sorry." She said quietly. "That question just…gets kind of old after a while, you know?"

"Yeah…I get that really well, actually." I said with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" She asked wearily.

"Well, my mom used to be a boxer and then she learned judo and she became really successful in MMA fighting. And she's kind of…" I made a gesture of flexing slightly. "big and scary and so a lot of—"

"Wait…Everett. As in…Debra 'The destroyer?'" She asked in surprise. I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, wow. The fan." I said with a chuckle.

"Clarisse had a bunch of her fights recorded and we used to watch them together." Jillian said with a grin. I nodded and carefully reached into my back pocket retrieving my wallet.

"Here…" I said as I slid a picture out of its space in my wallet. "Is a picture of me and her on uh…Pike's Peak, I think." Jillian took it and held it gingerly in her hand, looking at it.

"Wait, until Clarisse hears about this…" Jillian murmured with a wide grin on her face. She handed me back the picture and then took a deep breath, grinning to herself up until the point that she realized she was grinning to herself. Then she stopped. "I didn't mean to gush."

"No, no. I'd taking some gushing fan over some toolbox asking if she's a lesbian." I said with a sigh as I put my wallet back and swung my legs off the side of the bed.

"They do realize that she gave birth to you, right?" Jillian asked. I rolled my eyes.

"You'd think. And besides, I'm not sure when having a gay mom was used as an insult." I said with a shrug. "I mean, that sounds like it should be offensive, but the 'gay' insult and the 'your mom' insult just kind of cancel each other out."

"Well, I'd still probably punch out the lights of whoever said it." She added. I laughed.

"Been there. Done that." I said. She laughed, too. I stood just as the infirmary door opened. Lindsey stood there and looked at my bed then Jillian then me before quickly moving and hugging me tightly.

"Oh, my gods, I was so worried!" She said quietly. I raised an eyebrow and hesitantly hugged her back.

"You were?" I asked as she pulled away. She looked me in the eye and nodded. "Why?"

"Well…Because I don't know anyone else here. And you were trapped in there." She said quietly. "Not in that order, but—"

"Hey, I'm okay, now, so don't worry." I said with a comforting tone.

"Wow…" Jillian mumbled, rolling her eyes and walking away. "I'll see you around, Everett." She said before walking out the door and slamming it.

"I don't like her." Lindsey said with a sigh.

"She's growing on me." I said with a smile. I stared at the door for a second before I looked back at Lindsey.

"Oh, I've been doing some thinking." She said with a smile. She took my arm and then led us out of the Big house. "Okay, so I was thinking about when you controlled that storm and when you exploded and I think I know who your dad is."

"What? How?" I followed closely and soon we were in front of the Zeus cabin. "Oh, no, no, no. Not happening. I'm not going in there."

"Think about it. You can control storms. You can explode. I mean, is it possible you struck yourself with lightning?"

"No, because I can't summon lightning. Lindsey, I almost got killed by Ares' cabin. I will get killed by Zeus'" I said, shaking my head. "I'm not going to do it."

"Peter, why not? You shouldn't have to worry because this is your cabin." She said, shoving me toward the cabin. "And even if it's not, we are in the middle of a magic camp with healers and ambrosia and nectar. If you die, it will be impressive." I thought for a second and then nodded. She did have a point. It's possible that Zeus just didn't claim me because of the oath. The feeling of power would be similar to Zeus.

"Alright. Just…stay back." I said quietly as I started toward the cabin. It was impressive how large the cabin was. It was very imposing and as I walked in, I could feel this sense of energy humming through the air. Nothing happened at first which made me even more nervous, but as I reached the middle of the cabin, the air calmed down. It was quiet. I breathed a sigh of relief and I was glad that I had finally found a place.

"Lindsey! Lindsey!" I shouted out as I was heading out of the cabin. Then the door slammed shut. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. Wind started blowing and I heard thunder rumble loudly, shaking the whole cabin. I started looking around for some way out or somewhere to hide, but I realized that there was nothing to hide from. Just wind.

"You DARE to enter my territory!" A voice boomed like thunder, making me think that I might be talking to something pretty big.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—" Suddenly the thunder stopped and I watched as the cabin seemed to vanish around me. The wind picked up again and I looked to find that I was in the middle of the sky. Thankfully, I wasn't falling, but breathing was not very easy. I looked down toward the ground and saw the Long Island sound off to my right and right below me was Camp.

"Vanish from my company! Miscreant!" The voice rumbled and I looked up to see storm clouds forming. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and I felt pain. I felt like I was on fire, which was no strange thing for me, but the pain I felt as I was struck by lightning was hard to describe. Another flash of light and another fractional second wave of extreme pain. My vision was blurry. My lungs were struggling to work correctly. My heart was beating faster than it ever had before. One more flash of light, but this time it rocketed me toward the ground. I was a smoking ball of human hurtling toward the middle of camp at breakneck speeds. Whatever I needed to do to not become a puddle in the dirt, I needed to do fast. I thought through my known abilities and none of them looked plausible. Unless, I wanted to create a mini-volcano and land in it. Except one.

I thought for a second and tried to not focus on the immense pain or the fact that I could barely breathe or the fact that I could feel my heart beating in my brain. I tried to focus on the wind. Wind spiraling around me, lifting me into the air. I tried to manipulate it, but every time I did, my brain would start screaming at me to focus on the other things that were going on. The rapidly approaching ground. The pain in my chest. I broke through the clouds and kept the spread my limbs out as best I could to try and slow my descent, but nothing was working.

I wasn't sure how far up I still was, but my odds had not improved. I was still going to be a blood smear on the dirt outside of Zeus cabin. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths and finally managed to get out of my head and imagine the wind. I was watching it slap against my body and I manage to command it. Order it into a spiral below me. It touched down on the ground and it seemed to grow straight at me, spinning rapidly, picking up objects like dirt and sticks and t-shirts. I closed my eyes and braced for impact, but instead was grasped loosely and weakly by the cyclone I had formed. I kept falling, but it was pushing me back up, cancelling out some of my momentum. Suddenly, I landed and everything went black.


	12. Chapter 12

I woke up with a start. You know in the movie, _The Frighteners_, where Michael J Fox's spirit goes back into his body and he like gasps as he wakes up and he sits up, breathing heavily? Yeah. I did that. Except with less freezer burn and strange casting choices. Maybe I'm the only person who has seen that movie and would make that connection.

I had this sense of lingering electricity coursing through me and when I tried to calm down, it would jolt me again and I would lose focus again. I was surprised that my hair wasn't standing on end. I looked around and found that I was alone in the infirmary. The room was dark and from the looks of it, the whole camp was dark as well.

I took a second to rub my eyes and the dream I awoke from flashed in my mind. I could only remember some bits and pieces of it. I was underground. I could tell from the smell. There was the sound of running water somewhere, possibly below me. I cringed from this twitching feeling in my brain and my vision changed for a split second into a vision of lava. Nothing but lava, a wall of it filling my sight.

I woke up and I shook my head in attempt to clear it. I hated how confused I felt and it was all because of the lightning and how it scattered my brain all across the sky. I sat up weakly with a groan, sitting against the wall. I turned on a small lamp on the table next to me, forcing me to squint as my eyes adjusted.

"The lightning really does wacky stuff to your noggin, doesn't it, Perry?" I looked up quickly and blinked some to help adjust and finally I saw the source of the voice. He was a tall man, leaning up against the wall of the infirmary, a can of diet coke in his hand. I thought for a moment, looking from his beard to his Hawaiian shirt.

"You're…Dionysus." I said quietly.

"Mr. D, kid." He said, waving his hand over his can then popping it again, taking a long sip. "That name…doesn't really go over too well lately."

"That sounds like a very long and a very boring story." I said with a sigh. "How long was I out?"

"6 days." He said, taking another drink from his soda. His eyes moved down from my face slightly and he raised an eyebrow. "That's interesting." I looked down and moved slightly toward the light. I wasn't wearing a shirt and there was a large patch of gauze right over the middle of my chest. I carefully removed it, wincing as the tape tugged what little hair I had grown on my chest, and saw a large scar starting exactly over my heart then fraying out in a spider web, like arcs of electricity all over my chest

"The hell is this?" I said, running my fingers over my scar.

"Fractal scar. That's what happens when you get struck by lightning. You should be glad that you're still alive."

"Glad wasn't the first word that came to mind." I said, taking a deep breath. I looked around for a moment and saw an orange t-shirt laying out for me. I carefully slipped it on and moved the blankets off my legs.

"Well, no one else is glad about it. You're not particularly liked among Olympus." He said, waving his hand a moment.

"Are they taking that cellphone thing that seriously? Oh, or is it because I survived their attempts to kill me? Well, maybe Olympus isn't particularly liked among me." I said in disbelief.

"Well, even if that did matter, you're not exactly in a place to negotiate here." He said, taking a deep breath. "Now, then. Get up and go to Hecate cabin."

"Hecate cabin? Why in the world would I go to Hecate?" I asked, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.

"A very long and very boring story." Mr. D said, reaching behind him and tossing it to me. I caught it and finally stood, stabilizing myself on the bed. It was my bag. I slipped it over my shoulder then stuck my feet into a pair of flip flops.

"So, I'm just supposed to venture into a cabin where I don't belong and expect to find a place to sleep?" I asked, stretching my stiff body. "I mean, there's no way my mom is Hecate, so—"

"Yeah. You're going to be sleeping there from now on." He said with a shrug. "And no you still haven't been claimed."

"Right. Right. I'm not liked in Olympus." I said as I started out of the infirmary.

"Be careful what you say to gods, Pablo. They can make your life very difficult." He said, finishing off his can of Diet Coke and then crushing it in his hand.

"Yeah. I understand. I'm very aware of the gods and their…abilities." I muttered, rubbing my chest. I opened the door and started to walk out when Mr. D stopped me.

"Get some rest, Pavlov."

"You do realize that you've been calling me by the wrong name this whole time, right?" I asked. "And Pavlov isn't even a name, really…"

"Listen, get some rest. Tomorrow, training starts." He said quietly. I nodded and then rolled my eyes, heading out of the infirmary. It was nice out, thankfully. At least, something was. After my brief, but oh-so-pleasant encounter with the party god, I was ready for something nice. For a guy who is supposed to be jovial, he seemed pretty stiff.

I headed toward the cabins, giving my failed cabins a wide birth. I walked to the closed horse shoe and found a stone cabin with etchings covering the walls. I didn't feel particularly confident in sleeping here, but what was the worst that could happen? I was only walking into the magically well-secured cabin of the magic goddess who could more than likely turn me into a dog then force me into doing backflips for doggy treats for the rest of my life. No problems there.

I walked to the porch and then took a deep breath before pushing the door open. The whole cabin seemed to creak and groan as I walked in and because of that I quickly backed out. I was not going to get struck by lightning again. Or shot out of a cabin-cannon. Or attacked by ghosts. I could do getting set on fire. That's not a problem. Though with the state my mind was in, I didn't really know if some low level fire manipulation was within my capability.

I psyched myself up and quickly walked in, immediately moving to the center of the room. It was sparsely occupied, only a handful of beds taken. I braced myself for some sort of disaster to befall me. The ceiling to cave in only on me. The floor below me giving way. The painting of whoever 'Vera Lorry' was attacking me and giving me some sort of mutation. But nothing happened. And even as I selected a bed, the closest one to the door, nothing happened.

I moved to the bed, keeping a watchful eye on everything. Slipping my bag under, I quickly got into bed, pulling the blankets up in some sort of protective cocoon. And then I slept. Well, tried to sleep. Maybe it was the 6 days of sleep under my belt or the constant fear that I was about to be attacked by a godly security system, but I didn't sleep the rest of that night.

I was glad because it gave me some time to think. Not that I could do much thinking with how frazzled my brain was, but I could try. Immediately training came to mind. I probably would have thought about the dreams I had while I was out, but they became about as scattered as the scar on my chest. So, I thought about training. What exactly I would be training for. What I would be training with. How I would be training. Who I would be training with.

With any luck it would be Lindsey. Or Jillian, but she'd likely kick my butt if I screwed up, making her not a preference. Unless, I got to train with Freddy. I wouldn't mind that. I just didn't want to train with some unknown entity. Even Dimitri would have been a better choice. Even with his creepy Russian accent.

As my future life at camp started to leave my mind, my past life at camp started to come back. In particular my recent chat with the god of wine. He had said a lot by not saying a lot. He had made it pretty clear that he didn't like me, but he's probably that way with everybody. He is a god after all. The thing that kept coming back to me was the fact that I remained unclaimed. I could finally sleep in Hecate Cabin, but that didn't mean I was claimed. That meant I had a cabin. It sounded like he had spoken to the gods in Olympus and he made it clear that they didn't like me. Despite that, they still had to claim me, right?

I tried to ponder that point and I came to a hundred different conclusions. It was doubtful that any of them were actually correct, but luckily, I didn't have to think about it anymore because I got up out of bed.

It was very early in the morning and I set my bag on top of my mattress, getting some clothes out quickly. I decided to leave the camp shirt on for today, but I opened my bag to get a new pair of shorts out. I found my slingshot, thankfully, and then a sheet of paper, showing me my regular schedule. The temptation to rip it up was pretty strong, but I resisted and set it under my slingshot next to my bag. I finally pulled out a pair of cargo shorts and slipped them on, leaving my old pair under my bag. I slipped my slingshot in my back pocket and folded my schedule putting it in my pocket as well. I finally slipped on some actual shoes and headed out. Hopefully breakfast came with some answers. And bacon. I love bacon.


	13. Chapter 13

I realized pretty quickly, as the thought of breakfast filled my mind, that I hadn't officially eaten anything in slightly more than six days. I was pretty sure that whenever the medics checked to make sure I hadn't died and/or soiled myself, they probably followed it up with food. I was glad for the fact. My stomach roared in desire to eat something enjoyable.

I walked inside the mess hall. It was empty except for a few people at the Hermes table where I sat last time I was here and one child of Athena, reading a book that looked like it weighed more than I did. I got in line for food and that's when I noticed everyone get up and leave. I had to sit at Hecate's table, so I looked for it, just as everyone in the room seemed to glance at me then leave. Quickly.

I shrugged and sat down, immediately grabbing my glass and ordering coffee. I usually didn't drink coffee because it made me kind of…jittery, but I already was pretty jittery, with the whole struck-by-lightning thing, so a bit more wouldn't hurt. I took a long sip and took a deep breath as I felt the warm coffee run through my body. I shivered slightly then got to work on my breakfast.

It was pretty good food, thankfully. The last summer camp I had attended seemed to serve the same food each year. And I don't mean that they make the same thing every year, I mean that they made a cubic ton of the stuff 20 years prior and have been serving it since. This food was good though. Being made by magical folk would probably do that to food.

I ate it all pretty quickly and was just finishing when some of the other people from my cabin started to show up. 'My cabin.' Weird. I took another sip of coffee as they joined me at the Hecate table, giving me hesitant glances. I was pretty sure that was a sign that they didn't want to talk to me and I didn't blame them. That didn't mean I was going to take the hint though.

"Hi, I'm Peter." I said, scooting down to join them. There were three sitting together: One guy, a rather potbellied looking guy with sandy blonde hair maybe about 15 or so, but one of the most baby-faced people one could ever meet, and two girls, both redheads and both thin, but one less than the other.

"Uhh…Hi. Carl." The guy said, brushing his hand on a napkin then shaking mine with his stubby-fingered fist.

"I'm Maddison and this is Sophie." The more thin one said. I shook both their hands. "What are…Sorry, what are you doing at the Hecate table?"

"Well, I slept in the Hecate cabin. I guessed…" I didn't finish. I just shrugged.

"And she didn't kick you out?" Maddison asked, cocking her head slightly. I narrowed my eyes. Apparently, I had reached celebrity status as the guy who gets kicked ejected from cabins. Great…I miss six days and this happens.

"Well, unless I've been vaporized without me noticing, am now dead or in a coma, and am dreaming about three people whom I've never met, no she didn't kick me out." I said with a nod. "So, I guess that makes me your cabinmate."

"But you're not Hecate. I mean…She would have claimed you, right?" Carl said, looking a little nervous. I shrugged.

"I-dun-know." I said, taking another sip of coffee. "You've been here longer than I have."

"Well, I'm…just thinking…" He said, going back to his food. I narrowed my eyes and looked from him to Sophie and Maddison and realized that no one was looking at me. Not even venturing glances. They looked scared.

"Alright. Fine. I'll talk to you guys later then." I said, roughly putting my cup down on the table, the hot coffee sloshing over onto my hand. They watched in shock as I paid the heat no mind. If they were going to be scared, I was going to give them something to be scared of. Was that rude for me to do? Probably. I stood and brought my dishes to the tub for them to be cleaned before heading outside. I took a second to wipe my hand off on my shorts then I went to pull out my schedule when I heard fast footsteps and then was tackled.

"Oh my gods, Peter!" I groaned under the weight and looked up to see Lindsey straddling me, a smile across her face. She took a deep breath and hugged me, yanking my top half up uncomfortably.

"Okay. Okay. As much as I don't mind this hug right now from you, I like my spine straight and the ability to breathe." I mumbled into her shoulder. She gasped a little then stood, reaching her hand down to help me up. I stood, with her help and a groan, then brushed myself off, only to be hugged by her again.

"Peter, I went to the infirmary and your bed was empty and I thought you had died, but then I saw you and I was so relieved." She said quickly. I paused a moment then hugged her back.

"Did you check on me every day?" I asked quietly as we pulled away from each other.

"Well, after clean up, there—"

"Clean up?" I interrupted. "What clean up?"

"You made a tornado, Peter. Those can be kind of bad sometimes."

"Kind of all the time…"

"Well, it just picked up some debris. Knocked a guy on his butt. Messed up a lot of hair." She explained with a giggle.

"Anything else I missed during my mini-coma?" I asked quietly, looking around the camp.

"Umm…Oh! Check this out!" She started to run off, but then she ran back and grabbed my hand and then let it go. "Stay here, actually. I'll be right back." She said before dashing to her cabin. I didn't exactly listen to her and I instead, pointed toward the large climbing wall that was sticking over the trees. It was only a few seconds later when Lindsey returned.

"Welcome back." I said with smirk. She laughed and then presented me with a small harp. It was in the shape of a horseshoe and it had 4 strings strung along it. I knew it was a lyre. Not like someone who doesn't tell the truth. Like a really old tiny harp. "I didn't know you played lyre."

"When did I say I didn't play?" She asked, running her fingers along the strings.

"What? No, why do you have that tiny harp?" I asked, sighing quietly. She smiled and plunked one of the strings.

"I don't know! My dad gave it to me. It came yesterday. I'm not sure on what it does, yet, but I'm learning how to play it." She smiled and held the lyre carefully before plunking out a brief segment of "Smoke on the Water."

"Good choice. I'm sure they played _Deep Purple_ in Ancient Greece." I said with a nod. She laughed and then smacked my arm.

"I told you. I'm learning." She smiled and then, tucked the lyre under her arm before heading away from the dining pavilion.

"Where are we going?" I asked, jogging a step to catch up with her. "I have the climbing wall now."

"Yeah. Me too." She said with a grin.

"Well, how did you know I had climbing wall?" I asked, feeling confused. She smiled and then held up my schedule, giving it back to me. I slipped it back in my pocket then followed her toward the wall, glancing at her as we walked. "How have you liked camp so far?"

"I'm adjusting…" She said with a shrug. "I kind of miss Crefeld, you know?"

"Nope." I said with a sigh.

"What? No what?"

"I don't know. I don't miss Crefeld."

"Oh…Well, I miss it and everyone here seems to know exactly what's going on."

"If it's any consolation, I don't know." I said with a chuckle.

"Well, you've been asleep for a week. You don't count." She replied. "I mean, I know where everything is now, but that's a fairly recent development."

"Well, then I know exactly who to have guide me around here." I said with a smirk. She blushed softly and smiled back. I was curious if this is what flirting was. I was unfamiliar, considering I probably would have been beaten up for flirting typically, but it was a time for new things. What's one more, right?

"We'll start at the wall, then." She said as we came up to the wall. My eyes widened as they surveyed my current objective: Climb that. "Basically, climb the wall. Fast." Lindsey said with a giggle. "Travis! He's next!"

"What?! No, no. I'm not—"

"Learn by doing, Peter." She said, shoving me toward the wall. I found myself between two large climbing walls. There was a whistle blown and I didn't realize that was my signal to go until I realized the walls were moving together. Without any grace or agility whatsoever, I leapt to the wall, clinging onto the first handhold and scrambling my feet to something to stand on. I managed to scrape off of something and grab another hand hold, pulling myself up. I kept moving and just as the bottom part of the opposing wall, slammed against the wall. I breathed a sigh of relief and was about to move again when I heard rumbling above me. I looked up and saw that a large boulder was coming straight for me. I panicked and then managed to move over to dodge it, but then the wall behind me started moving and another boulder was released.

I somehow survived to get past the middle section with only a banged foot, a broken shoelace, and some scraped knuckles. But then the lava started. Like a volcano in the middle of the top, oozing molten rock down toward me. I wasn't sure how I would survive this, but then I realized that I was immune to lava. I simply kept climbing and other than a spot where I slipped, I made it with no difficulty. I stood victorious at the top of the climbing wall, arms aching, body smoking, and chest covered in magma. I took a quick slide down the back of the climbing wall and was on the ground again.

"Time to go, again." Travis said with a chuckle. I turned to him, a sorrowful look in my eyes. "No, I'm kidding. Just relax. Lindsey, it's your turn."

"Maybe I can get some lavaproofing and just coast through this, next time." She said. I chuckled quietly and turned to look at her, but her face was not a happy one, looking at me before turning toward the climbing wall. I furrowed my brow at her then stood, checking my schedule.

"Wood chopping. Fabulous…" I muttered then turned to look at Lindsey who was just passing the bottom section with plenty of space, but she was slowing down. She quickly dodged around the boulders, using the oncoming wall to lean on for a split second before going back to the main wall. I was impressed. I didn't know that gymnastics and cheerleading would transfer so well into magical climbing wall. I made a note to ask her about it, but I kind of wanted to disappear before I had to climb the wall again. I started to back toward the woods and watched as she finally came upon the lava. It oozed after her and she seemed to freeze then look back toward the oncoming wall. I noticed that the lava had gaps in it. Gaps that she could climb through, but that didn't look like her plan. She suddenly jumped off the main wall and reached for the oncoming wall, but it wasn't close enough. And she fell. I tried to think of something to do, but it was happening so fast. I finally focused enough to try and make a tornado under her, but nothing was coming. My mind was too fuzzy and no one even knows how powerful it would have been if I had formed one.

She kept falling until she landed safely on a large cushion, bouncing her safely to the ground. I breathed a sigh of relief and then shook my head at myself, leaving the climbing wall area. I had to get my head under control. Before I really needed my powers.


	14. Chapter 14

_Wow...It feels like such a long time. I'm so sorry for not updating this more! I even realized that I was a couple chapters ahead and that I just had forgotten to post on here. Thanks so much for the reviews and I will try my best to keep up the work. Thanks for reading!_

_~Rocky_

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><p>I thought about going to wood chopping. I had no idea where the activity officially started, but I thought about figuring it out. However, as I walked through the woods and discovered the tranquility of the area, I completely forgot about wood chopping and decided to just not go to wood chopping. I had plenty on my mind and I doubted that I could even chop wood with my little noodle arms.<p>

I walked through the woods for a while until I found the edge where it let out onto a beach. It was quiet, thankfully. The last beach I went to was nothing like it. Kids and loud families and raucous parties. It was infuriating. Anyway, I sat down in the sand and took a deep breath, trying to clear my head. I knew what ADHD felt like, even though it's actually battle instinct or something, but this was like ADHD on steroids.

Every time I tried to focus in on the trigger for my powers. Some emotion or some memory that I could access when. The first time I used my power, I was angry. I tried that, but every time I got close, my brain would surge away from it. It made me think for a second that Zeus did this intentionally. That somehow he managed to block the exact part of my brain that I would need to use to control something that would more than likely be useful in my whole monster-killing-and-world-saving business.

Maybe I would have benefitted from some yoga or something. Or a de-magnetizer. It had been almost a week since I had been struck, but there were moments where I felt like I could light up a light bulb by being near it. After a few more attempts at finding my chi or my zen point or whatever it was I was trying to accomplish, I left my spot on the beach and headed along the beach, walking by the water.

I walked into the woods on the other section of camp. It was equally quiet. I was hoping that some sort of inspiration might jump out and grab me, but nothing happened. No matter where I sat. No matter what I thought about. How I sat. Which eye I closed. It didn't matter. My brain was too scrambled. I would start to focus in and then I would lose it. The bad part was how frustrating it was. I didn't want to be known as the guy who has no control over his body. That sounded better in my head, but it remains true.

I tried again and again, but it wasn't working and I got so fed up that I had that familiar feeling once again. My skin heating up. I was smoking and it burned up much quicker this time, not even giving me time to start sprinting toward the beach. I moved as fast as I could, smoke rolling off my body. I finally reached the water and dove in, the cool water soothing my burning skin.

I emerged from the water, feeling a little grateful that I didn't have my phone anymore. I mean, if it didn't melt then I wouldn't have wanted it to get ruined in the water. I stayed under for as long as I could before I emerged. I stood and ran my hand through my hair, slicking it back as I wiped the water from my eyes. I wasn't smoking anymore thankfully, but there was a cloud of steam around me.

I waited for a little while for the steam to disperse before starting to walk back to shore. I wasn't sure how long I had been skipping whatever my now soaking wet schedule had said, I decided to head back into camp and to my cabin to get some fresh clothes on. It, sadly, took a minute or two to find the cabins, but once I did, I walked into the Hecate cabin to find my bags by the door. No one else was in the cabin, so it's not like it magi—Well, it probably did magically move itself, but because someone told it to do so.

It was so great that I was welcomed so warmly into the cabin I would be residing in for the next several years. Well, until the gods upstairs claimed me. I walked into the cabin, moving my bags back to my bunk. I pulled out a towel that my mom had no doubt tossed in at the last minute and that I was now incredibly grateful for.

I took off my shirt and started to undo my shorts when the door opened again, revealing Jillian who looked like she had seen a ghost. She quickly realized what she had walked in on and quickly blushed, slapping her hand over her eyes.

"I…uhm…" She mumbled before saying what sounded like some Greek that shouldn't be translated. "I thought I saw you come in here, but I was confused and I…I don't know. I had to come in here and check that it was actually you and…I am so sorry…" She finally said, closing the door and leaving. I stood there, covering myself with my shirt as best I could, a little shellshocked by the intrusion.

I quickly got dressed in fresh clothes and scattered my things about my bed slightly as a deterrent for my cabinmates to not try and move my stuff again. I then left the cabin and spied Jillian stalking toward off away from the cabins. My stomach grumbled and I suddenly felt conflicted between one of the most important things in my life and a girl that I met a week ago. I kept following her, but my stomach grumbled again and I finally gave in, heading for the mess hall.

I walked in and quickly filled my train, since I was one of the first people in there. I was glad because I didn't want to deal with my cabinmates and their judging glares and I felt bad, but I didn't want to chance Lindsey seeing me. She would probably drag me into something and as excited I was to be hanging out with her and being so close with Crefeld's most eligible bachelorette, I kind of just wanted to chill out with Jillian. She seemed like someone who would be cool to just talk with. I still had to try with Lindsey.

I woofed down the barbeque and the two slices of bread that I had grabbed. I grabbed the apple and shoved it into my pocket then chugged a glass of Mountain Dew in what seemed like a matter of seconds and I was pretty sure it was a matter of seconds when I suddenly felt like I was going to lose my lunch as I started to run out of the cafeteria. I regained my composure and put the apple in my mouth as I grabbed another piece of bread and put my tray away. I switched the apple with the bread and left the pavilion, heading to where Jillian had headed.

I started running, but I cramped pretty quickly and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. I made a mental note to get in shape out of embarrassment. _Run away from the monster! Nope. Too many times eating Chinese takeout four meals in a row. _I thought to myself, resulting in a chuckle as I took a bite out of my apple. I finally came upon a large circular stone structure and I made my way inside. I probably could have figured it out from the exterior, but it was the arena. Made sense for a child of Ares to be there.

I looked around in awe, examining the dummies and the wall of weapons. Looking at each scrape in the wall and each large claw mark that I imagined happened during a fight with a gargantuan beast of some sort. I closed my eyes and imagined myself locked in battle with one, dodging around it's movements and making my own strikes and somehow my mind shifted into leading one into battle and tearing this arena to the ground. I shook myself and looked up again as I heard the sounds of someone fighting off to one side of the arena.

I walked over to Jillian and found her practicing against a dummy with a spear and a shield. It was a little weird seeing her attacking like this, but it was to be expected from a child of Ares. She stabbed into the dummy, keeping the shield tight against her person as she advanced then bashed the shield into the dummy, tearing it into splinters. She then dropped the shield and turned, throwing the spear like a laser into the dummy across the arena, the weapon lodging into the torso of the dummy with a loud thungk.

"Dammit…" she said with a sigh. I raised an eyebrow.

"Why dammit? That was incredible." I said with a chuckle. "I'm not sure that I could fire that spear out of a cannon that well." She smiled.

"Just…this thing that Clarisse said some Hunter did. He destroyed a dummy by—" She shook her head. "Never mind. It's not important."

"Who is Clarisse?" I asked after a second. "She sounds like a big deal. Did you tell me and my brain just kind of buzzed it away or—"

"No, no. Sorry. Clarisse La Rue-Rodriguez. She's my half-sister and cousin." She said, reaching into her pocket and retrieving a toothpick.

"Okay, is this one of those 'I'm my own grandpa' situations or—" I asked with a laugh. She grimaced, but still had a small smile on her face. She tapped the toothpick on her palm three times and it suddenly grew into a javelin which she nimbly spun once before clearing her throat.

"Okay. Her mom is my aunt. We're both children of Ares. I'm her cousin and her half-sister." She explained, stabbing the javelin into the ground and retrieving two more toothpicks.

"So, Ares did—"

"The nasty with a pair of sisters. Yes. The sisters La Rue." She said, putting one of the toothpicks in her mouth and tapping the other one in her palm three times again, it growing into another javelin. She looked at me for a long moment then stepped forward and took my partially eaten apple from me, taking a bite out of it. I shrugged and took a bite of bread.

"So, why is it Clarisse La Rue-Rodriguez? You're Jillian La Rue, so—"

"Tracy. Jillian Tracy. My mom got married and Thomas is a helluva lot better dad to me than Ares has been." She said, taking another bite of apple and stabbing the second javelin into the ground. "And Clarisse is on her honeymoon, actually. She just got married to Chris Rodriguez. Son of Hermes."

"That's pretty awesome. You have a Chris?" I asked casually, not paying attention to the subtext that could come from a question like that.

"No, of course not." She said blushing softly. "I don't have time for nonsense like that."

"Oh. Got it. Must be tough work being the camp's hard ass." I said with a chuckle. She glared at me and I just smiled back. She quickly tapped the third toothpick on her palm twice and it grew into a sword of what looked like bronze.

"Do you have a weapon yet?" She asked, stepping toward me. I shook my head and she quickly offered me the sword, making me flinch in slight trepidation. I looked down at it and then clear my throat.

"Actually, I have my uh…slingshot." I said, retrieving it from my back pocket. She rolled her eyes.

"An actual weapon. Not a toy." She said, putting the sword closer to me. I finally relented and took it, holding it up for a few seconds. I finally put it down, letting it hang at my side. It was strange holding this weapon. I could feel the energy humming through the metal, but it felt like it was weakening. Like I was absorbing it or something. I looked and the shiny metal seemed to get a bit darker.

"So, where did you get the toothpicks?" I asked, taking a few small swings with the sword.

"Yep. Not talking about that." She said, grabbing a javelin from the ground. She broke it in half and it turned back into a toothpick which she tapped twice on her wrist. It grew into a sword which she spun in her hand. "Alright. Let me show you your basics." She said , taking a stance.

"Jillian!" A voice said from the doorway. I looked and saw Walker, looking at her and waving her over. "Chiron wants to see us in the Big house!" He said, turning to leave again.

"Maybe another time, then." Jillian said, breaking her javelin and dropping the toothpick in my hand. "See you around, Peter."

"Yeah. I'll see you." I said with a nod. "And hopefully I won't look like a confused kid with an umbrella when I do." She laughed softly.

"I'm counting on it. Later, Peter." She said, finally exiting the arena. I nodded and slipped the toothpick in my pocket. I walked toward a dummy and leaned on it, watching her leave. Time for practice.


	15. Chapter 15

After Jillian left, I decided to learn how to sword fight by doing. I had seen tons of movies on the subject. It was a lot of special effects and wire work, but the basics were there and I had to know the basics at this point. If I didn't, well, I would be ashamed. So, I squared off with the dummy, my feet shoulder's width apart which was probably something my mom told me to do. I held the sword with both hands and held it at an angle then with a cry of intensity, I swung. The blade sliced through the air, aimed for the dummy's neck and finally landed with a _clang!_ Smacking into the metal bar holding it up and causing a vibration to go through the sword, making my hands sting and drop the weapon.

I held my hands in my armpits in an attempt to quell the pain as I felt a feeling of just pure ignorance. If Jillian had seen that, she probably would have killed me. If Lindsey had been there, then she probably would have laughed her head off. And not spoken to me for a long time. Out of embarrassment. At least, that's what her reputation said. I took my hands out of my armpits and shook them, the pain subsiding finally. I looked down at the sword and saw that it was shining and bronze-y. Like how they looked in Mythomagic. I reached down and picked it up and it seemed to stop glowing. It darkened like clouds were going over it or something. I stared at it and it darkened even more like the blade was being corrupted with some sort of dark energy.

It intrigued me. I had seen these mega-amazing powers of mine and I was curious if this was another one of them. Not sure what use making metal look dark was, but I was curious by what was actually happening to the weapon. I looked closer and saw that the metal was cracking slightly. I stabbed it carefully into a dummy and backed away and it seemed to go back to normal. I paused a moment then pulled it back out. I focused on it this time. I imagined it rusting and eroding until it was nothing. I suddenly saw myself in the middle of a field of battle among people with bronze weapons. I raised my hands and all of the weapons rusted and broke, leaving them defenseless for an attack.

I opened my eyes quickly and dropped the sword, backing quickly away from it, but it was too late. The sword broke into pieces. I stared at it, feeling scared of myself. I had done it again. I had let myself slip into some sort of mental state where I was the master of the battlefield. Not in a good way. I didn't have a strategic idea. My only thought was to raze the whole area. I backed away from the broken sword quickly, bumping into a rack of spears. I catch one and immediately the wood in the shaft seemed to darken and wilt, cracking and aging before disintegrating in my hand to a pile of ash and a spearhead. I look around quickly before kicking the ash around and sliding the spearhead under the rack of spears.

"No one saw that. No one saw that." I mumbled to myself like a crazy person, trying to pretend that it never happened. I thought for a second before reaching into my back pocket and retrieving my slingshot. It didn't blacken. It didn't burn. Nothing happened to it. I raised an eyebrow and pulled back the sling, firing a small marble at a dummy. It worked just fine. I took a deep breath and looked around then decided on trying some target practice with my slingshot. I pocketed my slingshot then walked over to the shields, tucking several of them under my arm. I carefully walk around the arena, trying not to destroy them by touching them and placing them as targets at different distances and different elevations and angles. I finally stood in the middle of the arena and drew my slingshot.

I felt like Link, the Hero of Hyrule/time/legend/nature/whatever he is in the rest of the games. I felt like him. Except with the ability to talk and to not wear a tunic. I pulled back the slingshot and fired at the first shield, missing completely. I shook my head at myself then took a more careful aim and fired, hitting the shield. I quickly turned and hit a shield that was upon the wall of the arena, hitting it in the middle. I turn all the way around hitting shields. I still missed every once in a while, but I was getting better. I had practiced for pretty much the entire lunch period and I could tell when people started walking in and watching.

I had hit a good rhythm and was hitting bulls-eyes and a lot of them. I had a small group watching me, but a lot of people were on their own, practicing with their weapon of choice. I didn't hit any of them, but I did come close. I was aiming for one near the door when a familiar face walked in. I fired and then headed toward the fedora and black goat legs.

"Freddy!" I shouted as I walked up to him and almost hugged him. I stopped myself. Didn't want to get too awkward. It was just good to see him.

"Peter! There you are. I was looking for you." He said with a sigh. "Last time I saw you were in a bed in the infirmary and you looked like could power a third world country."

"Yeah. Good to see you, too." I said with a sigh. "Where have you been?"

"Well, I made a quick run to Providence to grab some child of Hermes who was distress signaling bad." Freddy said with a nod. "He had somehow managed to attract the attention of the Nemean Lion."

"That's…impressive, actually." I said with a laugh.

"That little kitty always seems to squeak his way out of Tartarus. It took out a semi-truck before we could get away from it." Freddy added, removing his fedora and pushing his hair back. "Okay. Enough chit-chat. Chiron needs to see you in the Big house. Come on." He said, patting my arm. He tried to pull me, but I didn't move.

"He what?" I said, a little worried. A lot worried, actually. Chiron more or less had final say here and as far as I knew, I was in major trouble.

"Dude, relax. Chiron rarely ever punishes people. And if he does then it's usually like…dishes. Or extra sword practice." Freddy said with a chuckle. I nodded and Freddy led the way again, me following close behind him.

"Hey, Freddy. What is this slingshot made of?" I ask, thinking about the handle of the spear from earlier. Freddy looked at me and then held out his hand. I placed the slingshot in his hand and he looked at it carefully.

"Nice and supple. Holly wood. Eleven inches long." He said before snapping it in two. "Phoenix feather. A beautiful wand, Mr. Pot—"

"What the hell!? Why did you break it!?" I asked, reaching for it. He put his hand up and then carefully pieced it back together, sealing itself along the crack.

"It'll never break, wilt, petrify, splinter or any other bad thing that happens to wood stuff. As far as what it's made out of…Olive? I think. Greeks like Olive trees. Especially children of Athena. They're kind of a big deal." He said with a nod. I laughed quietly just as we neared the Big house. I was about to step onto the porch when I heard shouting from inside.

"You don't have a choice here, princess!" I recognized the voice as Mr. D. I never really anticipated yelling coming from him, but stranger things have happened.

"No. I refuse to go on the quest then." The other voice was Jillian. I looked toward the door and then over at Freddy who had an equally worried look on his face. "Walker and I will not be subject to this."

"The gods have made a ruling and your father was in support of the decision. We know more than you and in time, you will know the facts and you will know what we do, but right now, you're both going and he's going with you!" Mr. D finished. I was curious why Chiron needed to see me, since he and Mr. D had their hands full with Walker and Jillian.

"Let's try to remain calm." I recognized that as the restrained voice of Chiron. "There's no reason to get excited."

"Excited? I—"

"He's green. He's completely untrained. And to top it all off, I can't stand the guy! He gets a little angry and—" That was Walker and from what he said, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I stepped onto the porch and listened a little closer.

"Listen, you don't even know what the prophecy is. Rachel said that it was for you." Mr. D said, sounding aggravated.

"Eavesdropping is so rude." I turned around quickly and saw a tallish woman with bright red hair and freckles smattered across her face. She was beautiful in an adorable kind of way. He hair was tied into a messy bun on her head and she was wearing a plaid shirt and ripped jeans that had paint splattered all over them.

"I…I didn't…" I mumbled. She smiled and patted my arm.

"I'm only kidding. Let's go in, kid." She said, pushing me into the Big house.

"Ah….Ms. Dare. Thank you for joining us." Chiron said with a pleasant smile, looking at me after, his smile faltering for a moment.

"Chiron. Dio. How have you two been?" She said with a pleasant smile. She glanced around a moment then sighed quietly.

"Don't call me that." Mr. D said

"Everything okay?" Chiron said, disregarding the wine god's objection.

"Yeah. I was just worried it was gonna be Hunter again. It's been 4 years since we've had prophecies this close together. I was worried he was stirring things up again." She said with a giggle. She waved her hand and took a seat at the ping-pong table, looking at Jillian and Walker and then me and Freddy.

"You're the oracle." Walker said with a nod.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare, at your service." She said with a smile. "Just need to wait for the actual important part to come."

"The prophecy?" I asked, taking a step toward Jillian who looked up at me in disdain.

"Yup! I came by because I could feel it was close, but I never really know when it hits." She said with a sigh, picking at a splotch of paint on her sleeve.

"Basically, she says a prophecy. Three people go on a quest to fulfill it." Freddy explained in my ear, behind me. I nodded and then was about to sit when Rachel inhaled sharply. Everyone froze and looked at her, but she just smiled and then giggled.

"Works every time." She said with another laugh. I laughed as well, but I was one of the only people who even smiled.

"If I had a way of turning my eyes green and barfing smoke, I'd probably have demigods going on snack runs for me. I have been working on my rhyming poetry." She said, clearing her throat. She took a deep breath and suddenly, her eyes glowed red and she stiffened.

"_In the bottomless pit, a portal has been found_

_In the elephant's den, the enemies will be unbound_

_The hubris of your adversaries will let you escape_

_But it won't be clean; you'll be hurt more than a scrape."_

I started clapping once she was done, but quickly realized what it was I had just heard. I continued to clap, but it was mostly because my brain was too busy panicking to tell me to stop.


	16. Chapter 16

I had been awake for far too little of the time I've actually been at camp. I've learned how to not sword fight. I've learned how to not fire a bow and arrow. I've learned how to become somehow despised by all of the Olympian gods, but for some reason, I was the best choice to go on a quest that involved words like, 'hurt' and 'bottomless pit' and 'scrape.' I finally stopped clapping and Rachel Elizabeth Dare sat back in her chair, rubbing her eyes.

"That would be really nice if there were some sort of warning system. Like, a bell or a whistle or something other than the feeling of getting hit in the face." She said, taking a drink of water from a cup that appeared in front of her, more than likely conjured by the only god in the room.

"So, uh…" I mumbled, looking around nervously. "So, that was a prophecy."

"It certainly wasn't a grocery list, genius." Jillian said, rolling her eyes.

"You said three demigods, right? So, where's the third one? It's not me, since I'm unclaimed and will get killed." I said with a nervous smile.

"Kind of the point." I thought I heard Mr. D mumble, but he didn't seem like the kind of guy who wouldn't just hit you in the face with the idea that he's not a fan of you. I turned to look at him and he simply shrugged.

"You will be going with them." Chiron stated. "It seems that the questant—Ms. Tracey—was not given the choice in this situation. The gods were clear."

"Zeus and Athena were very clear." Dionysus said. "And very loud as a matter of fact." He said, clearing his throat.

"Jillian and Walker are both capable fighters and will train you while you are gone. Demigods are natural born fighters, so you should have no problems becoming a proficient fighter in time for your destination."

"Do we know if we're facing any resistance?" Walker asked. Chiron shook his head.

"We would tell you if you were. We honestly know just about as much as you do."

"Peter, these prophecies…They're not tricks or traps that are setting you up for failure." Rachel said, leaning toward me.

"The gods can't handle every single little tiny issue that affects the world. And on top of that, we never want to be represented as the aggressors in a situation." Dionysus explained. "If we just busted into any situation and simply disposed of the bad guys then people would fear us. Being universally feared kind of sucks."

"I disagree." Walker said, popping his knuckles.

"Yes, but you're also a bit slow." Dionysus said with a wave of his hand. "Anyway, that's why we have mortal children. You're our errand crew."

"Can we go get some groceries, then? That's an errand. What we're being sent on sounds like a death trap!" I said, taking a step forward.

"Stop being such a wuss!" Walker shouted at me.

"I'm not being a wuss! I'm being realistic!" I shouted back. I'd been in worse situations in Mythomagic and my character lived through everything, but this was different. This was real people doing real things getting really hurt and then not even getting any awesome loot out of it. "We're teenagers! It's not our fault that we're demigods, yet we're being punished for it! Being sent on these reckless missions and in my case with little to no training! There is something you're not telling us and I want to know what it is!" I shouted, pointing at Dionysus. He had an unimpressed expression on his face, but I soon felt my skin starting to smoke and his face turned angry.

"You better watch yourself, kid. I'm one of the gods who voted that we don't kill you." He said, standing from his seat. He spoke in what sounded like a calm voice but the look on his face showed nothing but the opposite. "Don't get on my bad side." He said before vanishing. I stood there a little stunned. I think the whole room stood there a little stunned, but it could have just been me. After a moment, Chiron spoke.

"Walker, Jillian. Why don't you go out to the arena and start a little bit of training?" He said quietly, turning his chair to the table. He exchanged glances with Rachel who looked up at me and smiled softly. I turned and left before anyone else, but Walker and Jillian soon joined me as we headed to the arena. My fists were clenched and I was on the edge of exploding, but I was controlling myself enough to not set the whole camp on fire. We entered the arena and I grabbed a sword off of the wall and walked to the middle of the arena.

"Walker, go get some food." Jillian said, walking toward me. Walker shook his head.

"Who do you think you are?!" He said, shoving me. I landed hard on my butt and looked up at him angrily. "You think you can just say no to a quest!? It's an honor to go on a quest! It's an honor to fight for the gods!"

"It's also an honor to live past 17!" I said, standing up and tackling him. I straddled him and punched him hard in the face. I really think he was just too surprised to do anything, but he quickly stopped my next punch and went for one of his own, but it's like my mind clicked into fight mode and I dodged around it, trapping his arm. He went to kick me off, but I trapped his legs and soon held him in some makeshift submission hold.

"You big coward!" Walker shouted in a strained voice. I could feel my skin getting hotter and hotter and I let him go worried that I would burn another person or explode and take Walker with me in the blast. I let go of him and backed away quickly, closing my eyes.

"Back up!" I shouted, dropping to my knees and putting my head down on the ground. I could feel the heat coursing through me and I tried to control it or focus it or gather it in some way, but it was everywhere. I shut everything out and I prayed. To the gods. To God. To my mom. I prayed to anyone who would listen and it felt like everything slowed down. I could feel a current in my body. Like liquid fire coursing through me and I managed to branch the heat into my arm. I sat up then quickly threw my arm forward and a giant jet of fire shot out of my palm scorching the side of the arena and obliterating a dummy. I stood and closed my fist, staunching the flame. I stared at my hand. It didn't look like it was firing out anymore, but I could still feel the heat. I turned to another dummy and fired a ball of flame at it. I went around firing more and more fire at the targets, balls of fire whirling out of my hands like grenades. I wasn't feeling the heat anymore, but I could still do it. I scorched the wall and burned another dummy then drew my sword and directed a bolt of fire out the tip, slashing through the air in quick succession, then finally coming to a halt, my breathing heavy and sweat beading down my forehead. I didn't do much but I felt tired. I let my sword fall to my side and then looked down and watched disintegrate into nothing and blow away, my hand empty.

"Wow." I heard from near the entrance. Jillian and Walker both stood there, looking at me then at the destruction I had caused. I looked around and my mind seemed to revert back to normal. Like I lost whatever Zen-chi-chakra I had opened was now reclosed. I threw my hand forward again but nothing happened.

"Take a break, Peter." Jillian said, looking at me with an expression I couldn't read. She and Walker left and I was left in the arena feeling confused. I had control over my power for only a moment, but it was enough to make me tired. And I didn't pass out. Maybe my powers worked like a muscle. I had to exercise it and then it would be stronger and more stable. Not that I knew much about exercising. I guessed that I would have to get a lot more familiar.

I walked out of the arena and headed toward the mess hall, but I felt a hand on my arm and turned to see Lindsey looking at me.

"Hey! There you are!" She said with a grin. "You skipped out on the climbing wall." She said then looked a little more closely at me. "Wow. Are you okay?" She said, putting an arm around my shoulders. "You can talk to me." I nodded softly and looked down at my hands.

"You're…I don't know. Smart?" I said awkwardly. She scoffed.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to that, but I immediately feel a little insulted." She said, stepping away. I sighed and shook myself.

"Okay. I'm going to say a lot of things and if any of it pops out to you, please help me with that." I said before taking a deep breath. "I'm about to go on a quest and I'm completely unprepared for it and I don't know where we're even going or what we're doing there, but I'm going with Jillian and Walker who just tried train me, but I got angry and I controlled my powers for a minute, but now it feels like they're gone and I need to reopen my mind or reach peak clarity or something." I said very quickly. Lindsey stared as she seemed to process everything.

"Well, I'm not much of a fighter, yet, but I do know a lot about meditation. Will that help?" She said. "I think it's based on my parent of Apollo…ness." She offered her hand and I took it without thinking and immediately I was being yanked toward the beach. She lead me to the canoe dock and faced me.

"Are we here to reach a higher enlightenment or something?" I asked, looking around. Most of the canoes were back in, it looked like, so it didn't look like being interrupted was much of a worry.

"Come on. Humor me. Sit down." She said, sitting down in front of me. I sat down across from her, our legs crossed and our knees almost touching. A few weeks ago, I would have been flipping out about this, but now me and her hanging out didn't seem like that big of a deal. And whatever hero worship I had going on for her, essentially disappeared when we got here. I'm not sure why.

"Ohmmmm…" I started, but she flicked me in the forehead. "That was not chakra clearing at all." I said, rubbing my injury.

"Meditation is not about learning to fly or about speaking to a higher power." She said, sitting up straight and closing her eyes then taking a deep breath through her nose. "It's about self-discovery. It's about getting as far away from everything and just being with yourself."

"And you, in this case." I said quietly. She flicked me again.

"Don't talk."

"Why do you know so much about this?" I asked, dodging back as she went to flick me.

"My mom and I had a stint with Buddhism. She was always a little…odd." She said, opening her eyes and slouching forward. "My earliest memory is being told to get ready for another trip around the neighborhood, handing out magazines. I was only 3 or 4, but I remember feeling really uncomfortable. After that it was Baha'I and a brief stint learning Korean so we could get into heaven. Then it was Buddhism for a long time. Until a couple years ago. Who knows what it'll be once she realizes or finds out that her daughter is half-god."

"Wow…That's impressive." I said quietly.

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah…" She said, laying back on the dock and looking up at the sky. I moved next to her and laid down, looking up as well. "Close your eyes." She said quietly. I turned to look at her and she was looking at me.

"Lindsey, I—"

"For the meditation, you dummy." She said, smacking me. "Come on. Just try to focus and stop…looking at me." She said, turning away from me, a small smile on her face. "Weirdo…"


	17. Chapter 17

The canoe dock was surprisingly quiet. I hadn't been at the camp for a long time and I'd been conscious and fully aware for even shorter, but I knew that this place could busy. Not the canoe dock, but camp itself. There were a lot of people there which seemed a little odd due to the concept that there have been two big wars in the past 15 years. That's what Freddy had told me, at least. But it was busy. I had nothing to compare it to, but if I had been through two wars in 15 years, I wouldn't be this…buzzing. Unfortunately, that was all I could think about as I was attempting to meditate for the first time in my life.

I laid there next to Lindsey for what seemed like an eternity before anything happened. I took a deep breath to try and renew my relaxation. Then I scratched my arm. And then my leg. And it seemed like the hardest thing for me to do was to meditate. Lindsey seemed to be doing just fine though. If meditation had a progress bar, hers would be flying along while mine would be frozen so long that you have to ctrl+alt+del and open the task manager. And then close it down and start over. She was visibly meditating. I don't know if that's a thing, but she was. Just looking at her made me calmer, but it still wasn't enough. After about 5 minutes of ventured silence, I finally cleared my throat.

"So…" I started, but she quickly put a finger up to hush me.

"You're so bad at this!" She said, sitting up. "It's like you can't sit still or shut up. Ever."

"That seems a bit harsh…" I said, sitting up and leaning my back against one of the dock posts.

"Okay. We started 5 minutes ago. The first minute, you hummed very quietly. The second minute, you spent adjusting to try and get more comfortable—"

"I was scratching my back!"

"The third minute you scratched your arm and your leg and your whole body. The fourth minute, you cleared your throat four dozen times. The fifth minute, you spent staring at me."

"I think it has been established that I suck at meditating." I said with a sigh.

"I didn't even know that was a thing. Meditating doesn't take anything and somehow you are unequipped." She said, reaching forward and grabbing my head and squeezing it. "Just calm down!" She said with a bit of a laugh, but her hands seemed to glow a soft pink and it was like everything disappeared. I wasn't asleep and I wasn't dead, but it was calm. There were no sounds. No itches. Nothing else. I closed my eyes quickly before the sensation went away and I tried to remember what it was like to control the fire. To feel the heat coursing through my body and I felt deep down inside me that same heat. Sitting in the pit of my stomach. It was like a pool that was simply waiting for me to draw from it. I kept going and went deeper and deeper until I felt Lindsey's hands move from my head and she gasped loudly and I was suddenly snapped back into reality.

"What just…"

"I don't know! I'm so so sorry!" She said, looking at her hands. I thought for a second then look down at my hand, a small ball of flame flickered to life in my palm and I smiled at it. I extinguished it then brought it back again and again, knowing that I could do it now. I didn't know what I had just gone through. If Lindsey had temporarily killed me or what, but she fixed my problem.

"Lindsey! Thank you! Thank you!" I said, standing up. "Don't touch me, though. Thanks." I said happily, but taking a step away from her. She put her hands behind her back.

"I don't know what just happened, Peter…"

"I know. It was weird, but I've got to go tell Jillian!" I said, turning to leave.

"Hey! Hello? Kind of having a personal crisis here?" She said, holding her hands up. "You're kind of the only person I know here."

"Umm…I'm kind of about to be sent on a quest where I face death. Sorry, but that takes priority. I'll talk to you later." I said before running back toward camp. I felt a little bad for not staying and helping Lindsey. Especially after what she had just done for me, but I needed to show Jillian and Walker that I wasn't completely useless. I should specify that I was useless in close quarters combat. I had my slingshot and now I had that fire control thing down sort of and outside of combat I brought a quick wit and a wide variety of cutting rhetoric. Like verbal weaponry. Sassitude +5.

I reached the mess hall and was about to walk straight to Jillian and Walker who I spied at the Ares table, surrounded by all of their scary looking siblings. I got in line instead and got a trayful of food before sitting down at the Hecate table. I was warmly jilted by Carl, Maddison, and Sophie who scooted a few inches away from me as I sat down.

"Whoa…New blood…" A guy at the end of the table stood and looked directly at me. He was covered in tattoos on his arms of varying symbols, some old looking, but others more familiar. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm…Peter." I said, raising an eyebrow at the sudden quiet that fell upon the table. "I'll be sleeping in the Hecate cabin for the foreseeable future."

"Oh, so you were claimed by our mom?" He asked, leaning over the table a little bit.

"Well, no, but…I'm sorry. Who are you?" I asked, casually eating my food. I wasn't scared of the guy. I didn't really have any reason to be. I had dealt with buttholes like him before and from what I could tell if you didn't act afraid then it would disarm them completely. "That Thai symbol on your elbow says chicken wings, by the way."

"These are spells! Magical spells! If you couldn't tell!" He said, reciting a word and waving his hand as my food turned to jell-o. I shrugged and continued to eat. The barbecue jell-o was kind of gross, but the apple tasted nice.

"Well, I'm not your brother, so I didn't know." I said with a shrug, taking a sip of Mountain Dew. "I don't know any of that…magicky, Harry-Pottery stuff." I say, waving my hand. The guy started walking toward me and I finally saw that the name on his necklace said Aarón.

"What are you doing here, then?" He said, looking menacingly at me. I rolled my eyes and then raised my hand, like I was stretching, but I coated my hands in fire. "Oh, right. I can do this though." I say, waving my hands in front of his face. He jumped backward like he thought I might injure him or something. He must have been the only one not afraid of me in Hecate cabin and now he was included with the rest of them. "I'm not going to hurt anybody and I imagine that we would get along just fine, but I can't get along with all of you, by myself. So until then, I will be feared." I say with a nod. "Now, can I have my food back to normal, please?" I said, looking down at my plate. A second later my food was food again and not jell-o. Though my strawberry jell-o was now just a strawberry. I nodded and then finished eating, the entire table silent.

"Peter, finish up. We need to talk." I turned around and found Walker and Jillian approaching me. I nodded and stood, grabbing my tray.

"Okay, guys. You may now resume your normal everyday functions and Carl, thank you for making eye contact with me for that one second. It really meant a lot to me. I feel like we have a connection, now." I said with a nod. The table remained silent. I turned away from them and took care of my dishes.

"That was…impressive." Walker said from behind me as we left the mess hall. "You've been here for that long and you've already got the whole cabin on red alert for you."

"Thanks, Walker. I get it." I said with a sigh.

"No, Peter. You don't know Walker very well. He actually is impressed." Jillian said quietly. I looked back at Walker who did seem genuinely impressed. I shrugged and looked at Jillian who looked more disappointed than anything, but she seemed hard to read. She always did. I wondered If that was a conscious effort or just a natural occurrence.

"Well, it's pretty obvious they're all scared of me, so until I can be seen as not scary then I will maintain this persona." I said, looking at Walker.

"Leadership through fear." Walker said, clapping his hands together. "You could learn something from that, Jillian." He said. Jillian turned to him, giving him a look that made it pretty obvious she was trying to make him explode.

"Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry." She recited, looking Walker in the eye. "Winston Churchill said that. Dictators. Get. Eaten. I will not lead the Ares cabin by fear." She said, turning toward the arena.

"Is there something going on in the Ares cabin?" I asked, following her. She stopped and turned to me.

"My cousin was a big deal in Ares cabin. She fought in the war. She slew a drakon. She was just an amazing warrior. She's gone now, raising a family, but when I came to camp, I became a shoe-in for head counselor by the mere fact that I was her cousin. So the previous counselor, Louis, just stepped down and I got the job. I've been doing it ever since I got here two years ago." She said, ending with a sigh. She clenched her fist and then turned toward the arena again. "Clarisse was hard. She was tough and she didn't let much slide. She was a strict leader, but during the war and after she met Chris she…softened and everyone knew. Not that she stopped caring or anything, but she wasn't as tough as she was."

"So, what's the problem?" I said, touching her arm.

"The problem is that our brother, Julian, is a real doucherocket." Walker said, his hands shoved in his pockets as he followed.

"Julian is preparing to challenge me to be head counselor." Jillian said with a sigh. "Which he has the right to do. He's been here longer and he already has people backing him up, believing that he will be a better leader than me for the sole reason that he promises to be strict and ruthless. Something that I refuse to be." She said, looking down at the ground.

"So, what happens when he challenges you?" I ask.

"A one on one fight. Between him and me." She said, walking to a wall and sitting down. "It'll be a tough and I think I can beat him, but it all doesn't matter if we succeed in this quest."

"Why? What's that matter?" I say, sitting down across from her.

"Someone can only challenge to be the head counselor if they have been at camp longer, are older, or have more quests under their belt than the current." Jillian explained, slipping her hand in her pocket and removing a toothpick which she stuck in her mouth. "Ares hasn't gotten a quest since Clarisse went to get the Golden Fleece."

"So, that means you have to be at the top of your game." Walker said, patting my arm.

"So, if we go on the quest and come back successfully, then you remain the head counselor, but if we go and fail…"

"Then we're most likely dead, making it unimportant, anyway." Walker said plainly. I look up at Jillian.

"That's why you need to be ready. You need to be able to fight, not only because of this, but because if you can't fight then one of us could get hurt." She said, her voice catching at the last moment, but it quickly went away.

"I'll be ready." I said with a nod. "I promise."


	18. Chapter 18

I made a promise and I intended to keep it. I had a rule for myself ever since 4th grade when I borrowed someone's pencil and promised to give it back, but I broke it and I broke the promise I had made. Ever since then I made a rule to never make promises. In a way I made a promise to never make promises, which doesn't really make sense, but I followed it. I never said 'I will.' I always said 'I will try to' or 'I will try to remember.' It was a very non-committal way to live.

Since I got rid of that rule, who knew what else would go to the wayside in my transformation into a semi-mature human being. Maybe I'd get a haircut and start drinking coffee. Maybe eat balanced meals. No, that was pretty unlikely. Jillian and Walker trained me for a little while. I burned through two or three swords and a spear before we stopped for a break. I wasn't sure what it was that made me destroy these swords, but they were gone. They didn't melt and they didn't just fall apart. They turned to dust.

"We are going to run out of weapons." Walker said, looking down at the small dust pile that had once been a perfectly good knife. "Can you not break all of our weapons?" I sighed and sat down, taking my slingshot out of my pocket and shooting a few pellets at random spots.

"So, since this quest needs to go perfectly, how about we strategize?" I offer, glancing around at Jillian and Walker. They shrugged and sat down with me.

"Well, we'll leave tomorrow. You can pick your pegasus tomorrow morning." Jillian said with a nod.

"Awesome." I say with a deep breath. "Where are we going then?" I asked, realizing that I really had no idea.

"We had a discussion with Chiron and we talked about this and we'll be heading to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky." Jillian said with a nod. "We're assuming that's the mentioned 'elephant's den.'"

"And the enemies are… who? Or what?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"The gods tend to piss of a lot of people, so there are a lot of possibilities." Walker said, leaning back on his hands. "Giants, titans, other gods, ancient mortals, monsters, dogs, cats, small rodents, supporters of HDDVDs, Walt Disney, Herman Melville, Fortune teller or soothsayers from any generation, Ludwig Von—"

"Really?" I said, narrowing my eyes at Walker. "The gods had a hand in the blu-ray v. HDDVD war?"

"Focus, gentlemen. Odds are Herman Melville and Walt Disney aren't going to make some sort of attack toward the gods" Jillian said, putting a toothpick in her mouth.

"I thought the titans were all dead." I said, finally focusing in, though I made a mental note to get the story of the rest of those later.

"Well, not really. The titans are immortals and in effect can't die, but they can be scattered in Tartarus. Hyperion, Krios, Kronos, Prometheus, and some others have been seen and the majority have been defeated and sent back to Tartarus, but really almost anyone could free them if they found a way in and out of Tartarus."

"Well, a portal has been found." I said, quoting the prophecy. "Is it possible that someone is breaking the titans out?"

"Well, we don't know, but it sure looks like someone is breaking something out." Jillian said, leaning forward a little bit. "Though, I'm not sure who would want to break anything out of Tartarus."

"HDDVD supporters…" I say quietly. She punches me in the arm, but laughs a little bit. Just then my stomach growls loudly.

"Wow. Let's do a little bit more training before we go to dinner." Jillian said, standing up.

I went to dinner feeling a little tired that night. I had done a lot of training, but a little bit more training meant an hour and a half of parrying technique. I was pretty sure at that point that if I got into a sword fight, the only thing I would know how to do is parry. I had sparred with Jillian after that while Walker went to dinner and I won 3 times. It was out of 20 matches and one was counted as a tie because my sword broke again. After that we called it a night and headed to dinner.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early." She said, putting her hand near my shoulder and punching my arm. I stood there for a moment and then nodded.

"See you tomorrow. I'll nudge ya." I said with a chuckle. She didn't laugh, but only stared at me.

"You're such a dork." She said, heading into the mess hall.

"I prefer lovably eccentric wunderkind." I say, following her in line.

"No. Stop it." She said, putting a hand in my face. "We are not going to banter." She gathered her food and then turned toward her table. I blinked and then laughed a little, watching her go. I gathered my food and then headed to Hecate table, a spot clearing for me at the end of the table. I smiled at everyone, nodding to them as they stared in horror like I had a human head on my tray instead of barbecue and I was fully prepared to sink my teeth into it.

"Hey, Aarón. Carl. Maddison. Sophie." I said with a wave. They all simply sat there for a moment before Carl cleared his throat.

"Hey, Peter." He said, with a wave. He waved and his hand glowed with a small blue flame which he looked at a moment and it grew to a bright orange flame. I smiled in slight surprise.

"Whoa, Carl…" I say, reaching over and giving him a high five, both our hands on fire.

"It was a really simple spell." He said quietly, looking down at his food and then around at his siblings who were all in shock and dismay at what Carl had just done. Like I had shared my human head with him and we were now fighting over who gets the first bite of the frontal lobe.

"Know any other simple spells?" I ask, eating my food.

"Well, there's…" He snapped his fingers and my food was jell-o, again. He snapped them again, turning it back to normal, but once again my jell-o became a strawberry.

"How do you do it?" I say, tilting my head as I take a bite of barbecue.

"Well, a lot of spells are a word or phrase, really. Most of it comes from Latin. Other spells are small runes that we keep on us." He said, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a necklace full of beads, in the middle were three round ones with small pictures on them and the rest were flatter and had small etchings in them. "The more powerful the spell or the stronger you want it to be, the larger and more stable the rune has to be." He explains, showing me one of his beads. "A lot of these are protection spells, but—"

"That's enough, Carl." Aarón said quietly. Carl looked over at him and then slouched down in his seat, turning back to his food. I glanced at Aarón who looked at me and then went back to his food. I cleared my throat and was about to speak when I noticed Carl writing something on a napkin with barbecue sauce. He glanced up at me and then nodded toward Aarón. I noticed that it was similar to one of the beads on his necklace. I stared at it for a long moment and then imagined it in my head. I felt like this was what I was supposed to do. I looked at Aarón and snapped my fingers and suddenly all his food was jell-o.

I'm not sure how long I laughed at the look on his face, but it was a while. I practiced my new trick on my own food a few more times, getting the hang of being a magic user. It was the only spell I knew and I was ecstatic to have it. I left dinner, feeling a little bit better about being included in Hecate cabin. It made me wonder why she hadn't claimed me yet. I was of age. I slept in her cabin and sat at her table. I could obviously do magic. Why couldn't she just slap her name on me and move on? I thought to myself as I grabbed my backpack, putting some of my things inside in preparation for the quest. I grabbed some clothes and then leaned my backpack against my bed.

I wasn't sure what to bring on the quest. I mean, it's not like a camping trip or a family vacation. What do you bring the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky in the middle of Spring to stop some unknown entity from potentially raising magical beasts and beings from the dead, so that they can attack Ancient deities from the Mediterranean? I don't know either. I grabbed some extra clothes and some socks which seemed like a given. I eventually packed a canteen of water and then snuck some apples from the cafeteria. I felt ready, but I was more anxious than I've ever been.

The next morning did not come quickly, gently, or any other adverb. It simply arrived, bluntly reminding me that I had to go save the world. I had only slept for two or three hours, but to call what I did sleep was just incorrect. My eyes were closed, but I wasn't sleeping. Panicking was closer. My mind was constantly flooding with worries and problems and nightmares and it kept me awake for most of the night. I finally opened my eyes and swung my legs off the bed, to find that I was in the corner of the cabin, my bed having been moved while I was sleeping and my bags packed and moved to the door. I rubbed my eyes.

"Not now, please…" I said, running my fingers through my hair then standing and moving my clothes and my bunk back. I got dressed in a pair of shorts and a plaid shirt. I really only wore this shirt when I was either working or trying to look tough. It never really helped at all, but I still wore it and I deemed today especially appropriate for this shirt.

I grabbed my backpack and slipped it over my shoulders then headed out the door. I grabbed an apple out of my bag as I walked, taking a bite out of it. I knew that I wasn't going to really be up for a full breakfast. On top of that, I had never ridden a horse before and didn't even know that flying horses really existed until the day before. I didn't trust my stomach on the back of one just yet. When I got to the stables, Jillian and Walker were already there, their horses ready to go.

"There you are. We were starting to get worried." Walker said with a chuckle.

"Good morning, Peter." Jillian said, offering me a gentle smile. It was nice. "Go ahead and pick out a horse." She said before turning her attention to a dark grey horse. Walker was standing next to a plain white Pegasus. As I approached it looked at me and then reared back whinnying loudly. I took another step and it seemed like the rest of the horses did the same, shaking the doors on their stalls.

"What's going on? Am I doing something wrong?" I say, freezing in position. "Should I have…bowed first or something? Like in Harry Potter?"

"No, I've never seen them act like this." Jillian said, heading into the stables. I cautiously followed her in and she eventually got all the horses calmed down, but they still seemed uneasy as I looked them over. I took another bite of my apple and one of the horses, a light clay-colored one, reaches over his gate for my apple which I take back at first, but on closer inspection, I realize that this horse is for me. I let it finish my apple and then carefully climb onto its back, grabbing a handful of its mane as I walk it out of the stables.

"I shall name her Epona." I say with a big smile, petting its neck. Epona neighed loudly and then bucked a few times, snorting angrily.

"That's definitely a male pegasus." Walker said, moving in front of Epona to calm her-well, him- down. Epona finally relaxed, but turned her neck to look at me. I didn't speak horse, but if I had to guess some of what he was saying was not nice.

"Well, that's a great way to build a long lasting and powerful relationship between a steed and his rider." I say, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Well, we'll have time to form a human-animal bond later. We've got a quest to…quest." Jillian said, climbing on the back of her Pegasus.

"Quest to quest?" I ask. She put her hand up to stop me.

"We will not banter, Peter. I swear to the gods." She said, but she smiled anyway. She finally took off and Walker followed. I gripped Epona's and looked up at Jillian and Walker.

"Epona, yip yip." I said, pulling on his mane. He didn't move and instead, snorted at me. I sigh. "I'll give you another apple." He lit up a little bit at the word apple and finally took off, but he still didn't look very happy to be carrying me. That was fine. I wasn't happy to have him when I went off to defend Hyrule. Dumb horse.


	19. Chapter 19

There's this really big idea that flying on the back of a Pegasus is supposed to be like really invigorating and exciting. Like, riding a horse except in the air and at light speeds. What a disappointment it was. After we took off, it took a little bit of getting used to. There were a couple of fairly harrowing near-death moments, but I survived. Epona and I grew closer and bonded out of it.

"I don't think I've ever seen a Pegasus look angry." Walker said, looking over at Epona. Jillian flew up next to me on the other side.

"Yeah…I have to agree. I'm not sure how expressive a horse's face can be, but I'm getting an angry vibe from this one." She said with a nod. I looked at the two of them and then shook my head.

"This isn't going to work, guys. Epona and I have a truly deep bond." I say with a nod. "The kind only formed between a steed and his rider."

I could have guessed it wasn't true. Epona freaking hated me. Though, our first meeting was pretty awful, so it made sense. I wasn't sure why the pegasi had such a dislike for me, but I was sure that it was something that I was going to figure out. Maybe they didn't like my cologne or something. We rode for what seemed like a long time. I found out later that it really wasn't a long time, comparatively, but I think my mind had this warp speed idea of Pegasi and when that turned out to be a bust, I was ready to be done flying. It had only been a couple hours when we decided to land.

Walker was the kind of person who was paranoid of being spotted by mortals with our flying horses, so we ended up setting down in the middle of Armpit, West Virginia or something. The mountains had been rough a little rough on the Pegasi and so we set down in the woods, hoping to rest for a little while.

"We're going to be getting into Mammoth Cave within the next two hours probably, so we'll need to rest up and be ready for whatever could happen." Jillian said, taking a toothpick out of her pocket and tapping it on her palm a couple times to produce a spear that she jabbed into the ground.

"And being the greenest, you're going to get us some food." Walker said, clapping me on the back as I stepped away from Epona, rubbing my sore back.

"Me? Get food? Am I supposed to fly to the nearest Wendy's or something?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"No, no. This is actually not a bad idea." Jillian said, walking up next to me. "It'll give you practice with your slingshot and we brought some extra swords just in case." She finished, elbowing me hard in the side.

"Oh, ha. Ha ha. Hilarious. I didn't know that Children of Ares were known for their quick wit and hilarity." I said, grabbing my slingshot out of my pocket. "Well, I'm going to go slaughter some innocent squirrels and hope that I don't get attacked by a bear or a mountain lion."

"Okay. We'll see you." Jillian said with a wave.

"Hurry back. I'm starving." Walker said with a thumbs up in my direction. I'd like to say that I stuck my thumb up back at him, but sadly it was a different finger. He just laughed and I just walked into the woods.

There was something interesting about the woods. It was tranquil and calm. It was quiet, but somewhat active at the same time, like a thousand things all happening at once, but on such a small scale that it was barely any noise at all. He had heard stories about this Hunter guy and how he felt at home in the woods and could spend days in the woods by camp, never getting lost and always feeling at peace.

I don't know what the hell that guy's problem was, but it sucked out there. It was hard to breathe and everything smelled like deer urine and dead animal. Whoever came up with the idea of clean mountain air was either a liar or wrong.

I had been out there for 20 minutes when I saw my first animal. It was a squirrel. A big squirrel that was an easy target for my slingshot. So I killed and picked it up before continuing on down the hill.

"That was a good shot." I heard it coming from somewhere nearby. It wasn't loud and it wasn't a voice that I recognized, but it was definitely there. I looked around. I know that disembodied voices were sure to be part of the whole demigod business, but it was still something I was getting used to.

"Thanks…All the Legend of Zelda really paid off…" I said quietly.

"Legend of Zelda? Never heard of her." The voice said. It sounded closer, but it sounded like it was all around me. From the trees. From the ground. I looked around again, looking up in the trees. I heard some rustling and frantically fired a shot from my slingshot into a nearby bush. I heard a small squeak and when I walked over, all I saw was a dead rabbit. I felt a sense of relief. I wasn't sure why, because there's no way that this rabbit was talking to me, but I was kind of just glad it wasn't a coyote or a bear or a dragon. "Now, that was just luck."

I whipped around, pretty freaked out at this point. I didn't see a person, but I saw a leaf. Not a person in a leaf suit and not a giant leaf. It was just a leaf. Which wasn't strange except for the fact that it was floating about a foot and a half away from my face. More leaves started to gather with it and then in a flash there was a person standing in front of me. She was a younger woman, her features comforting and her eyes looking adventurous. She was shorter than me, but not by a lot. Honestly, if she hadn't appeared out of nowhere and not been dressed in a toga with sandals then I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it.

"You're a goddess." I said, finally catching on. She smiled and nodded proudly. "You must be like…Artemis?" Her smile fell and she let out a long sigh.

"Nope. Hundreds of years and I'm STILL NOT ARTEMIS!" She shouted. The woods seemed to rustle with her voice. "Just because a girl likes to hunt doesn't make her Artemis." She said before turning away from me. "I spend a few centuries in the underworld…" She mumbled before taking a deep breath. "I expected better from you." She said as she turned around to me again. I raised an eyebrow, curious as to why I, the guy who had been officially declared a demigod for less than a month, was supposed to know who this random goddess was. "Since you seem to remain clueless, I will tell you. I am Britomartis."

"I'm Peter."

"I know."

"Right. You're a goddess." I said, rolling my eyes. "Well, it was great meeting you. I need to go get this—"

"You're done? A rabbit and a squirrel and you're done?" She asked. "I had figured you for a Cretan, but—"

"Hey, that's not deserved."

"No, Cretan. A person from Crete." She said, taking a step away from me. "I was a goddess there. I was adored. Then my damn father and those other Olympians came into power. Then Artemis came to Crete and everyone just LOVED her. Forgot all about me." She said, her eyes darkening. "Then Minos…" She sighed. I raised an eyebrow as she seemed to recompose herself. I wasn't surprised that people didn't like the gods, but I didn't anticipate another god to say that. This whole meeting seemed a little strange, but to me everything about this seemed a little strange. "I guess, you would know about not being a fan of the gods, huh?" She said, nudging my arm. I nodded, rubbing my chest a little bit, thinking about being struck by lightning again.

"I'm not sure the gods like me much either." I said with nervous chuckle. "I guess, I should get going. I've got to go prepare these and—"

"Oh, please allow me. It's the least I can do for you." She snapped her fingers and the two animals changed into two pouches, of their pelts, filled with the perfectly butchered meat. I looked up at her in surprise.

"Thanks! That's really nice of you." I said with a laugh. "Would you like to join us? We're camped not that far from here." She shook her head before I was even finished.

"No, that's very kind of you, Peter, but I need to go. I must check on my mother. I haven't seen her for so long." She said with a sigh. I nodded.

"Thank you, Britomartis" I said and she smiled at me before she dissolved to leaves and blew away in the wind.

It was a fairly short walk back to camp. I did get lost a little bit, but once I got close enough, I could hear Walker and Jillian discussing how I must have died. They stopped when they saw me walking in from the trees.

"We were certain a group of squirrels had run off with your remains." Walker said, sitting around the fire they had made. I rolled my eyes and produced the two pouches.

"Killed them myself." I said before tossing them two him. He looked at them and then looked up at me.

"Did you skin them, debone them and butcher them too?"

"What?" Jillian said, looking up in surprise. She walked over and sat next to Walker. I walked over and sat down across from them by the fire. "Wow. Where'd you learn that?"

"Actually, I didn't. Britomartis did." I said with a nod.

"Who? Brita what now?" Walker questioned, looking at me through the fire. Jillian took the meat and started getting ready to be cooked.

"Britomartis. She's a goddess." I said with a shrug. "I'm not sure of what, but I mean…she did this for us. And she was really polite to me. Didn't hit me with lightning or anything which makes her one of the nicest gods I've met so far."

"I'm not familiar with her." Jillian said, sitting back to let the meat cook. "Did she say anything else? I doubt she just popped up butchered the meat and then left."

"She talked about being in the underworld for a long time. Umm…She talked about Crete. She hates Artemis and the Olympians." I shrugged. I assumed that she wasn't the only god that didn't really like the Olympians.

"…Really?" she asked, leaning forward. "This is…This is odd…" Her face became concerned. Not panicked, but just concerned.

"It's not like she attacked me or anything. If she were really going against us then she would have, right?" I shook my head. "Honestly, she seemed more concerned with her mother than she did with me."

"We should tell Chiron." Walker said quietly.

"We'll tell him once we get back." Jillian said with a nod. "We'll need to get going as soon as we eat. If in fact, Britomartis was actually going to get reinforcements then I don't want to be here to meet them." I opened my mouth to defend her again, but then stopped. Jillian was right. Of course she was right.

I'd like to say that we enjoyed the meal, but in reality, it was pretty gross. Not that the rabbit or the squirrel were disgusting to eat or anything, but with nothing to hide the flavor of squirrel that's all we got. It was very in-your-face and not in a good way. In a this-is-awful way. In a next-time-we-go-on-a-quest-we're-going-to-Taco-Bell way. We ate quickly and got back into the sky. There was no sign of Britomartis, but I kept thinking about her.

And before you start, not that kind of thinking about her. What little I knew about my situation and the even less I knew about hers, none of it lead me to believe that this was normal—Well, as normal as being a demigod could be. A god usually doesn't just pop up for house calls. It's not like Zeus is going to pop down and fix someone's wiring or that Hermes is going to deliver a letter. Despite that, I'm not sure how common it is for a person to just bump into a god. I have a strong feeling that Greek gods and coincidences don't really go hand in hand.

Whatever it was that was going on, I was curious what was going to happen next.


	20. Chapter 20

Well, it wasn't a lot longer until we landed right outside of the cave entrance. We had flown over it and it looked busy, so we didn't really want to cause a stir by landing our flying horses in the parking lot. Thankfully it was surrounded by woods, so we didn't have to go far. Which was a good thing because I was getting real sick of riding on that horse and it had made me all stiff which would have made walking miserable. And believe it or not, playing video games inside all the time does nothing for your cardio. I was exhausted by the time we had walked up to the visitor's entrance.

"Okay. Just keep your eyes open. Look or anything out of the ordinary." Walker said, looking around.

"We can start here and then we'll eventually move into the cave." Jillian said, scouting into the buildings and eyeing everyone suspiciously. I was busy steadying myself on the wall outside the Visitor center. Jillian spotted me and tilted her head.

"You seriously need to get in shape. You're making me feel pity and it is very unnatural for me." She said with a sigh. I narrowed my eyes at her and then stood up straight.

"Well…You'll see…" I said with a shrug. I panicked, okay?

"Well, get to work. We need to find ancient or magical etchings or symbols or some sort of sign telling us where to go." Walker said, scratching his head.

"All River Styx Boat Tours for the rest of the day are canceled for emergency maintenance." Someone said over the PA system. I looked up at Walker.

"I'm gonna put my money on that." I said with a chuckle. "How much maintenance does a cave need? Honestly…" I mumbled as the three of us hurried toward the cave.

Now I had never been in a legit cave before and I have to be honest. I didn't want to go in. It was dark and spooky and crowded. Not that nice kind of crowded. That we're-all-going-to-be-on-the-evening-news kind of crowded. I could hear Walker and Jillian talking while they hurried. I hoped they had a plan that didn't involve stealing a boat.

"Look, I can warp the mist, but I'm a terrible liar." Jillian said to Walker.

"Oh, and you think I'm a storyteller?" He replied.

"Well, you're going to have to be. I'm doing it to this guy." She said, stopping in front of a park ranger. The three of us stopped in a line in front of him and Jillian snapped her fingers. The ranger stood there for a moment and I looked over at Walker who blanked. The ranger shook himself and then tilted his head.

"Something I can help you kids with?" He asked.

"We're the maintenance crew for the River Styx tour." I said quickly, checking my imaginary watch. "We heard there was some crumbling on the foundation wall. Some stalactites threatening."

"Aren't you a little young?" He asked quietly.

"Wow. As offended as I am, yes. We're in high school. It's called early job experience." I said with a sigh, rolling my eyes.

"Well, is there a supervisor I can call? Or talk to? I find it hard to believe that you three are alone here." He asked, pulling out his phone. My face fell.

"Yeah, I suppose…" I mumble, looking at the ground. "We'll give you the number in a second. I just…" I hold a finger up and then take a deep breath, turning to Jillian and Walker. "Okay, guys. The ranger is going to call Mr. Iron. Maybe if he puts in a good word, he'll be gentle with the whip this time, okay?" I say with a comforting smile. I took this moment with my back turned to the ranger to smile at Jillian who hid her own smile and shook her head at me.

"The…Well…Okay." The ranger said quietly. "Look, go ahead on in, guys. Just stay in the boat. They stay on a rail." I turned back to the ranger and smiled in relief.

"Oh, thank you, sir. Hear that guys? No whip!" I said with a smile. "Thank you so so much, sir…" I took Jillian and Walker's hands then started leading them toward the cave again. I waited until we were inside and finding the start of the River Styx tour to let go of their hands.

"That was…" Walker mumbled as he stepped onto the boat. Jillian sat near the front.

"Not bad, Peter." She said with a nod. "Not bad."

The tour was kind of interesting. There was a part where we had to do some steps, but even that wasn't so bad. It was cool in there and the terror of what beast may be hiding in the dark of this cave drove me quickly up the stairs. From there we got on another boat for a small stretch. Things didn't really get that interesting until we had been on the tour for about an hour. I know. Tours should be longer than an hour, but this one was. Apparently caves are a big deal or something.

We were all on the boat and we had just passed a sign for the Bottomless Pit. Of course, there was the obligatory "How deep is it?" question that popped into my mind, but pretty quickly that changed when we heard a commotion from up ahead. It was yelling. Pretty clear yelling. A few voices back and forth. The echo made it hard to understand, but I could pick up some of it.

"-Care of the tours!" One voice said. It was male and deep. Strong and the mere sound of it, made me imagine the mountain of a guy that it belonged to.

"I did take care of the tours!" The second voice was younger, but also male. "That ranger had no idea what hit him!" My heart was pounding in my ears and Jillian, Walker and I all stood up, ready to get off at a moment's notice.

"Well, then why is there a boat coming in!?" The voice shouted back.

"It must be a glitch or something!"

"Who cares what it is!?" Another voice chimed in. This one was female. "Just stop it and kill whoever is on it." I guess, the three of us didn't need another notice. We hurried off the boat to the path on the side. I was about to turn tail, but Walker stopped me.

"We need to finish the quest." He whispered to me before taking the lead. We were able to hug the wall and slowly creepy further into the cave. The voices got louder and we could see motion up there. Nothing solid and no figures appearing fully. It made me wonder if the things talking were actually people. The closer we got, the harder my heart beat. It was nerve-wracking and I could hear this high-pitched shriek in my head that felt like it was going to tear my brain in half. The shriek eventually turned into a howl and the sound of wind blowing, hissing against the cave walls and turning the water to mist on our faces.

We were standing right outside where a sign marked the bottomless pit. Walker signaled that on his count we should leap out. We did. But no one was there. I couldn't see a single person. The only thing I could see was this black vortex swirling over the pit. There were these things that would split off from it then either sip out of the cave or linger and find its way into several golden boxes that circled the pit. Walker, Jillian, and I surrounded it.

"What is it?!" I shouted over the noise.

"This has gotta be the gate to Tartarus!" Jillian replied. "We need to close it!"

"We'll need to knock out the cave and close it all up!" Walker suggested. He walked around closer to me then turned to me. "Look, we've had our differences in the past, but—" Everything that happened next happened in a flash. A blade split through Walker's chest. The squelching noise of the sword being pulled out. The clatter of his weapons. The thudding of his body as it tumbled into the pit. The scream that came from Jillian. The merciless scowl on the face that appeared behind Walker right before he was stabbed. It was like it was there the whole time, but I never noticed it.

"Demigods." He said with a chuckle. Jillian ran her way around the vortex and was immediately met in combat by another person that appeared from nowhere. The butt of a sword hilt knocked her in the back of the head and she crumpled to the ground. I felt my heart sink in my chest and what was I going to do? Two children of Ares dismantled in a matter of seconds and me, just the greenest camper in all of Camp Half-Blood. I looked down at Walker's sword and with a shaky hand I grabbed it, prepared to defend myself. A large Hispanic guy and a pale girl with dark brown hair approached me, but the guy that killed Walker raised his hand to stop them.

"There's something different about you…" He said, wiping Walker's blood off on his shirt. His sword was a pale grey that looked more like stone than it did metal. I could already feel the celestial bronze weakening in my hand.

"Oh yeah? Is it the fact that I'm gonna kick your ass?" I said, not sure where this confidence came from. He quickly swung out of nowhere. I managed to block it, slowly backing away from him. He struck again and I blocked it, but this sword didn't have much left in it. I needed to save Jillian. I needed to close the pit and how in the world am I supposed to do this against three super soldiers when I can't even use a sword?

"You're pretty good blocker. Feel free to attack anytime you want." He said with a laugh.

"Why, so your little doggies back there can finish me off? I can block all day." I lied, really hoping he wouldn't call my bluff. I'd like to say that my cool demeanor and unwelcome sense of confidence scared him off. That, however, would make me an unreliable author. What really happened is that he chopped my sword into pieces, kicked me onto my ass, and then held a sword at my throat.

I looked up into his eyes. They glowed very softly, but as he looked at me and I felt the point of his sword press a little harder against my cheek, I could see them glow a bit brighter. Like gold. I held the hilt of the sword in my hand. Walker's sword. I looked down and saw his name scratched into the leather in very young handwriting. I couldn't go down like this. Seeing that made my skin start to heat up. Whatever meditation mojo, I had found control of, that was long gone. I was ready to kick ass and take names. I felt a sharp pain course through my cheek as the tip of my attacker's blade swiped across my face, warm blood leaking down my face. I looked up at him and clutched the sword hilt tighter, heat coursing through my entire body.

"It looks like someone has a secret talent." He said, looking down at me. He sheathed his sword and watched.

"Titus. Lake. Anya." He said and next to, who I assumed was Titus, appeared a small girl with red hair. "Take the boxes and go."

"Lee, they…the collection hasn't—"

"Go!" Lee shouted, looking back at them. They scrambled to gather the boxes and they quickly left. That's when Lee turned to me.

"That whole smoky skin thing. Yeah. That got old really quickly." He said with a chuckle. "You gotta get control of yourself." He said before, waving his arm at me, the ground beneath his arm turning to lava and leaping straight at me. I stopped it then redirected it back at him. He knocked it away then nodded. "Not bad. I guess, you do learn some stuff at that camp." He said with a nod. "Did you learn this?" He asked before hurling a ball of lava at me. I caught it and then threw it back. He simply countered with three more. I thought for a second then snapped my fingers. The balls of lava turned to jello then bounced harmlessly off my chest.

"I did learn that." I said with a grin. He narrowed his eyes.

"Do you not realize who you are?! Who our father is!?" He said, the ground around him starting to boil. "The power that you and I hold!" I looked at him then whipped around causing a funnel cloud to zoom out of my hands, planting him in the chest. He flew back and slammed into the cave wall.

"I don't, but if our father is anything like you then maybe I'm glad I don't know him!" I said before kneeling and slamming my hands on the ground. I could feel the power coursing through me and in my mind I pictured myself bursting through the top of the caves and crushing everything in sight. I looked over at Lee who was still recovering, but looked more surprised than anything. Finally, I heard a crack. I looked down and saw a crack split at the impact of my hand and I slammed both hands down again. I felt the earth tremble slightly and suddenly rocks were falling. They were falling all around me into the pit. I managed to move over to Jillian and take her hand, but I felt exhausted. Like all of the energy just came rushing out of me. That's when I felt a hard impact on my head and everything started to go foggy. The last thing I felt was Jillian and I being scooped up and being whisked out of the cave. I saw sunlight for a split second then everything went black.


	21. Chapter 21

Just when I thought I wouldn't be passing out and waking up in beds anymore, I was proven partially correct. I didn't wake up in a bed. I woke up in a cell. On the ground. I was grateful that I wasn't dead, but would it have hurt them to lay down a blanket or something? I could feel a knot on the back of my head and my entire body was sore. It was odd because I didn't do anything particularly strenuous, but maybe swordfighting had that effect on people. Of course, I say swordfighting, but it was more like blocking badly.

I was already in the middle of passing out. I didn't really need the extra knock on the head. I cringed as I sat up, rubbing the back of my head. Groaning, I looked around. Things were fuzzy, but I needed to get my bearings. I could tell that I was in a cell and I could tell that I was alone. I didn't want to admit, but I was immediately concerned that Jillian wasn't with me. Now before you go thinking anything drastic, I'm going to stop you and say that I was only concerned because I didn't want to rely on myself in a fight. She was a lot better than I was at pretty much everything.

"You alright, mate?" I turned and looked through the bars of my cell to the cell across from me. I saw a guy about my age. Thin. Tall. Curly dark brown hair. "Hey, man. You awake?" I noticed an accent this time. Australian or something. I figured that I should probably answer him this time.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm awake." I mumbled. I took a deep breath then stood up, checking my pockets. No wallet. No slingshot. No sword. All I had were the clothes on my back and the toothpick Jillian gave me. "Where are we?" I asked, stepping toward the door.

"Currently? Montana." He said with a nod. "More specifically, the prison of Camp Golden Age."

"Camp Golden Age?" He nodded and then sighed.

"Well, there's Camp Half-Blood where children of the gods, you and me, go to train. And then there's Camp Golden Age."

"Sounds like a theater camp."

"Well, it is pretty dramatic." He said with a nod. "This is where the Titans send their kids." I felt my breath catch in my chest.

"The titans are…dead or…in prison or whatever." I said quietly. "Right? That's what Freddy told me."

"Well, after the first titan war, they were either killed or imprisoned. And I say killed, but it's not really killing like you and I are killed. They're more weakened to the point of submission."

"Okay, so how is it that they…How do they have so many kids then?" I asked quietly.

"Well, several years ago there was the second titan war." He said with a nod. "I mean, they weren't fighting the whole time…" He shrugged. "And then a couple years ago there was another insurgence. While both were defeated, it didn't stop them from having kids obviously. And it was quite easy for some Titans, because they never left." I stood there, looking at him. It was a little hard to take all of this in. Everything I had heard about Titans was that they were kind of a giant bag of dicks.

"Why do the gods not do anything about it?"

"They might not know. They seem to have the ability to hide themselves and they're able to pack up and move the whole camp pretty quickly too." He said with a sigh. "On top of that, the gods don't meddle into earthly affairs like this. They send demigods to do that." There was a long pause. I wasn't sure what to say. I was in a cell with no weapons. I had information that the gods needed to know about.

On top of that, this got me thinking. If Lee said that I was his brother then…Well, that meant I belonged here. I was the son of a titan. Not sure what titan, but I was definitely their kid and that meant that I should be here. And that made me a kid of one of the big bags of dicks.

"Well…Since you're going to be here and not dead yet, might as well talk for a while. I'm Artie." He said, finally breaking me out of my own head. I looked up and cleared my throat.

"Peter." I said quietly. "Wait, if you're saying dead yet, then how are you here? You're a son of the gods, right?"

"Yep. Aristaeus." He said with a nod. "I know you've never heard of him. It's alright. I don't care." He shrugged. "I've gotten used to it."

"Well…Why haven't they…"

"Killed me? Because of my dad. The Titans are going all out this time around and they know that if they can get some of the older gods then that will help. I went with a couple of other people to find some campers that we had lost in this area. They came out of nowhere. Riding griffins. They killed the other two people with me, but my dad stopped them from killing me." He said quietly.

"Wait…So, if they didn't have a reason to keep you alive then—"

"You're dead." He said with a nod. My heart sank into my chest. Could that possibly mean that Jillian…I didn't get a chance to think very long because there was someone walking towards us.

"Peter. Come with us." It was Titus and someone I didn't recognize. He had short blonde hair and looked like a twig next to Titus, but that didn't stop him from looking intimidating. He was wearing armor and carried a long staff that looked like if he hit you with it, you would not enjoy it. He looked like he was thinking about a thousand things at once, but that didn't stop him from opening the door to my cell and letting me out straight into shackles. "Try anything and we'll kill you on the spot."

"Charming. That's how you get all the ladies, right?" I said, looking up at Titus. Titus didn't respond. I assumed I was correct. I looked over at Artie and he couldn't look me in the eye. I didn't blame him. I'd have a hard time looking at someone who was about to die, too.

They lead me out of the jail, Titus wielding a spear menacingly close to me. I took deep breaths and tried to think of anything else except me dying. Of course that made me thinking about my mom and Lindsey and Jillian and Freddy and Chiron and Dimitri who was kind of a butthole and Carl and Maddison and Sophie and Aarón…He was one hundred percent a butthole.

They lead me through the camp. I noticed that it wasn't like Camp Half-Blood in that there weren't Cabins or even permanent buildings. It was all tents except for a large black building in the middle of all of them. I saw people slashing at dummies and sparring with each other. I saw people being held while others punch them. Something straight out of a ridiculous action movie. 'We need to train you to not feel pain, so we're going to kick your ass for three hours every day.' Something like that.

We walked into the black building and I say walked, I mean they shoved me into the black building and then down a hallway. At the end of the hallway was a set of open double doors. Inside was a dark room with several people and in the middle was a girl. She was sitting tied to the chair, her head slumped forward. Bruises and cuts covered her arms. Her brown hair was damp with what I assumed was either blood or sweat and she looked like hell. I felt all the air leave my lungs when I realized that it was Jillian. I couldn't breathe and it felt like I had just gotten punched in the stomach.

"Anya, Wake her up." I looked at the source of the voice and saw that it was a woman. She was probably in her early twenties. She was wiping her hands off with a towel. I guessed that she was the torturer and I wanted to rip her head off, but I didn't have much of an option being outnumbered in the room about twelve to one. The girl I recognized as either Lake or Anya walked over and dumped a bucket of water over Jillian. I watched as Jillian weakly and slowly sat up. She looked up at me and stared. I looked at her and mouthed an apology. I'm not sure she saw it. Her eyes were red and swallow and her face was bruised.

"Bring him forward." The woman order. Titus shoved me forward. I stood there and looked from Jillian to the woman. "Peter, is it?" I nodded slowly. "I'm Samantha." How could such a horrible person have such a normal name? "Your girlfriend here is one tough cookie." I could only nod again, too distracted by everything that was happening all at once. "Now, I've been asking Jillian some questions and her response to each one has been 'go to hell' or something else unhelpful, so I figured I'd try with you." She drew a knife and held it to Jillian's throat. "What does Camp Half-Blood know of the Titans?" She asked. I opened my mouth in a panic. Jillian looked at me and shook her head a little bit. "And to set the ground rules. Either I get an answer or she's dead."

"I…I…I don't kn-know…" I mumbled. Samantha's hand tightened around the knife. "Wait!" I shouted. "Look, I'm being honest. I don't know. I was at the camp for not very long and most of that time was spent passed out in a hospital bed." I said quickly. I thought for a second, looking at Jillian then back at Samantha. My heart was pounding. I took another deep breath. "While I was there, I was rejected, electrocuted, attacked, burned, struck by lightning, and all sorts of other horrible things as well as being sent on this quest with virtually no training."

"How does that help us?" The girl with the bucket asked. Samantha took the knife away from Jillian's neck.

"Anya, shut up." Samantha said, stepping toward me. "So…what? You want us to feel bad for you?" I looked from Anya to Samantha and down to Jillian. I couldn't believe what I was about to say.

"I'm saying that I'm the son of a Titan and I want to join you."


	22. Chapter 22

It was a little eerie how quiet it got all in an instant. Jillian was looking at me with some emotion on her face that I couldn't recognize. Betrayal or anger. Actually, knowing her it was probably anger. A lot of it. Hopefully, she knew that I wasn't being honest in this situation, but I guess there was no way she could know.

"You want to…You want to join us?" Samantha asked, tapping her knife on her hand. "So…what? We're supposed to believe you?"

"The only reason I stuck around that camp was because it was better than that stupid school I was going to." I said, rolling my eyes. "Now that I have the place where I actually belong then I think I'd like to stick around a while."

"And we're to believe that this isn't a ruse, so that we don't kill you." Samantha said, still brandishing her knife. I took a breath then looked over at Anya.

"Anya, you saw what I did to Lee, right? My brother, Lee." I said, playing with the toothpick in my pocket. I looked at Jillian for a long moment. Samantha looked at me then at Anya who nodded softly.

"Oh, another lava bending hothead. Great." She said with a chuckle. "We can go without one more."

"He can control storms, Samantha…" Anya said quietly. "And…earthquakes…maybe…too…" She mumbled, shrinking under the glare of Samantha.

"Okay, so you're more than a one trick pony, but you know what? That's not good enough. You want to join, then you have to prove it." Samantha said, turning the knife around and holding the handle to me. She looked at me then looked at Jillian tied to the chair.

"What? You want me to kill her?" I said in disbelief. I looked down at Jillian who was hard to read. I had no idea what it had to feel like to watch helplessly as your life was bartered and talked about deciding on who was going to take it. "I'm…uh…I just thought you would know better." Samantha looked at me, her brow furrowing. "Look at her. A daughter of Ares. You know Ares. Prideful. Stubborn. Arrogant. You've already defused her and beaten her. She's in pain from your lackluster attempt at torture, but she's already reserved herself to death and she wants to die." I said, taking the toothpick out of my pocket. I looked at Samantha who was looking at me like she was about to rip my face off.

"I…you…" She stammered angrily.

"Throw her back in jail and let her sulk in her inadequacy." I moved close to Samantha and then held the toothpick in her face. "And let me give you a lesson in torture." I turned to Jillian and freed one of her hands. I looked her in the eye, trying to convey as much sympathy as I can muster, but I'm not sure how much she believed me. Especially as I jammed the toothpick under her fingernail. I heard her screams and I tried not to cringe, but I knew that she needed the weapon a lot more than I did and she knew how to use it a lot better than I did. I just wish that I could have given it to her in a less gruesome manner.

"You…bastard…" Jillian muttered at me as I pulled away from her. "I…I trusted you…"

"Well, I certainly don't know why. You knew I wasn't one of you." I said, wiping my hands off.

"Titus. Shane. Take her away." Samantha said quickly. Titus and Shane, the tall guy with the staff, muscled their way forward and untied Jillian, hauling her to her feet. They dragged her out of the room, Jillian glaring at me the whole time.

"Now, I'm not convinced. I'm keeping an eye on you, Peter." Samantha said, jabbing me in the chest with the butt of her knife. "But I'm going to let someone else deal with you. I don't have time for this. Come with me." She said, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the room. She led me down the hallway again then right down a small corridor leading into a large set of double doors. They opened before we got there and it opened into a large room. At the end, facing the door were thrones lining the back wall. I didn't really take the time to count how many and all of them were empty except three.

There was a man on the far left. He was seated and speaking to someone, but as soon as Samantha and I entered, he glared at the door and looked like he was going to run straight at me and kill me. He was dressed in armor, just like everyone's was, but his seemed somewhat sloppy. It was in disarray and it had a hole in the front from what looks like a spear. Off to the right was someone, but as soon as I looked for them, they were gone.

Then in the middle was a man dressed in plain clothing. He had white hair that was strung out in all directions. He wasn't very tall, but he was built like a football player. Despite his size he didn't dress the part. He wore slacks and loafers with a dress shirt and a brown sweater vest. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a tie under there. He turned as we approached and I jumped a little when I noticed the large ram horns sprouting from his head. He had a pair of wire glasses barely balanced on his nose that did little to hide his large eyes or his long nose.

"Samantha, your father is over there. I'm sure he wants to speak with you, but introduce me to this person first." He said, removing his glasses and turning to us, taking a few steps forward.

"This is—"

"I'm Peter, sir." I interrupted. "You must be the man in charge." I stood at attention as best I could for someone who didn't pay attention to anything ever.

"Peter. Is this the—" He looked at Samantha who nodded.

"I was interested in joining you, sir." I said with a nod.

"Lee's brother. They already had an altercation." Samantha said.

"Oh, and now you're ready to join?" He said with a bleating laugh.

"He was very convincing, sir." She mumbled, looking a little embarrassed.

"Samantha! Get your ass over here!" The guy in the armor shouted. Samantha looked at the man in front of me, which I couldn't blame her for. He had ram horns coming out of his head.

"Go, Samantha. I'm quite capable on my own." He said, shooing her away. He then turned to me with a small smile. Samantha nodded then hurried off.

"So, you are the man in charge?" I asked, looking around the room.

"Well, I'm one of them. And probably the best option right now." He said, stroking the long white beard coming from his chin. "On top of that, I'm your grandfather. What an interesting twist, huh?" He produced a clipboard from thin air and scribbled a few notes on it. "So, you and Lee had a bit of a tiff? What happened?"

"I knocked him on his ass." I said with a chuckle. "…sir."

"Well, that's a good thing. Lee thinks he can strut around town like this because—" There was a chime and the man produced the clipboard which turned into a small screen. "Later." He said quickly before vanishing it again. "Look, this room is getting stuffy. Let me show you around camp." He gestured toward the door and I followed.

"May I ask who you are?" I said, looking up at him.

"Oh, of course. My mistake. I'm Krios." He said, tapping on his ram horn. "It takes some getting used to." He led me out of the throne room and back into the camp. "Now before we get too far, let's get you a weapon." He turned out away from the black building around between two tents where a rack of weapons stood. They were all the same ivory handled and grey-bladed, but they came in varieties. Swords, daggers, spears. I sighed a little bit, thinking about my experiences with the sword back at camp before I hesitantly grabbed a sword off the rack.

I expected the sword to crumble, but it didn't. It seemed to hum almost. Like it was made for me. I swung it a couple of times and it swished through the air perfectly.

"What do you think, kid?" Krios asked, looking at me a little unimpressed.

"It's perfect. This doesn't look like the sword they gave me at camp." I said, sheathing the blade.

"Well, that's because this isn't Celestial Bronze." He said, straightening his glasses. "This is flint. Titanic Flint. Mother Gaia gave my youngest brother a scythe made from this stuff to castrate our father. "Your great grandparents, I suppose." I looked down at the sword then nodded.

"Sir, can I ask you a question?" I said, placing a hand on my sword. "Why would you give me a sword after I attacked your camp members and then suddenly had a change of heart? Why in the world would you give me a sword?"

"Well, because if you were going to run, you would have by now." Krios said, standing up straighter. "On top of that, if you did run there are plenty of people here who could kill you at my order. Heck, I could kill you before you get too far. And if you ran we're in the middle of the woods and you wouldn't survive past the monsters guarding the perimeter." Krios finished then adjusted his glasses. I looked around the camp for a long moment then nodded.

"Where to next?" I asked, not wanting to ask too much more about escaping.

"To your tent, I'd say." Krios said with a nod. "Then you'll be trained before the evening meal." He started leading me toward some of the tents, but a girl ran up and talked to Krios. They stepped away from me for a moment and spoke which gave me a moment to look at her. She was about my height and had short blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She reminded me of Lindsey, but I tried not to think about that fact. Her skin was somewhat tan, but it wasn't the tanning bed tan. It was a tan that showed she had been outside for a long time. It didn't take long for the two of them to walk back over to me.

"Peter, it seems that I'm need back in the castle, so Polly here will finish your tour." Krios said with a curt nod before vanishing. The girl moved in front of me and smiled. She had really nice teeth.

"Hi, I'm Polly, if you couldn't guess." She said before gesturing in the direction of the tents. "You must be Peter, right?" I nodded. "So, you're the one that was at the other camp and now you're here?"

"Wow. Word travels fast." I said quietly. "Can I ask what all that was? Everything in the cave?"

"Well, thanks to you, we'll need to find another door to Tartarus." She said with a sigh. "We were trying to gather the Titans." I looked up at her in slight confusion. She shrugged. "When the titans are defeated, they're scattered throughout Tartarus. We were collecting the pieces."

"And if you had managed to get all the pieces?" I asked a little nervously.

"Well, then we would have more than three Titans in that throne room." She said, pointing toward the castle. "We currently have 5 free. You met Krios and if you're lucky, you haven't met Menoetius. The one that was hard to see is Lelantus, Titan of hunting and going unnoticed."

"So, invisibility." I shrugged as I followed close next to her.

"Not exactly." She looked around for a moment then nudged me. "Hey, Lake!" She shouted. All of a sudden, I noticed the other girl from the cave standing only a few feet near me. "They're not invisible. They're just…they're able to alter your senses to not notice them."

"Like a perception filter." I said with a nod. They both looked at me confused. "Obviously, you're not Whovians…" I mumbled, looking down at my shoes. "So, what can you do?" I asked Polly. She nodded toward Lake who walked off and then she handed me a pair of sunglasses. I raised an eyebrow and then slipped them over my eyes. Polly stepped back then snapped her fingers. Like a flashbang, there was a bright flash of light that dazed me a little bit through the sunglasses. I assumed I would have gone blind if I didn't have them on.

"Daughter of Hyperion. Lord of Light and father of the sun and moon." She said, taking my sunglasses off. I looked at her with a bit of a shocked smile.

"Do I have like a tan outline of the sunglasses now?" I asked with a chuckle. She laughed and shook her head. "Thank goodness. So, who are the other two Titans?"

"Well, of the Titans that would actually help us or are available, we have the three I mentioned then Prometheus—"

"Okay, didn't he already get killed? Err…defeated? Sent to Tartarus?" I asked, confused. She sighed.

"Well, when you're the Titan of foresight, you tend to be able to be in the right place at the right time." She explained, stopping in front of a large pair of tents. "He doesn't have any kids here, however. And he's been underground since he got out." She pointed around the camp. "The infirmary, mess hall, and additional armory are all in the castle. The stable is behind it. That's where we keep our griffins and the pegasi that we take from the demigod scouts." I flinched a little at how casually she said that. "Just ask somebody and they'll point you in the right direction. In here is where we have General's meetings."

"General?"

"When you're the leader of your family or your tent, then you become a general. Every couple weeks there's a General's meeting to discuss current enemy positioning, tent status, training schedule's, etc." I nodded. "For Hyperion, I'm the general which doesn't say much because there aren't many of us. For Lelantus, it would be Harvey. You'll meet him. For Krios, it'll just be Krios. He doesn't have any kids. Coeus has Shane, you met him. He's the guy with the big staff. Don't mess with him or Titus. Titus is the general for Atlas." I nodded again then looked up at Polly. "For you, you'll need to pay attention to Lee, unfortunately. You don't have much of a choice. Perses only had three kids." I took a small breath as I realized that was my father's name. Perses.

"The titan of…?" I mumbled, looking down at my hands.

"Destruction, decay, and peace." I looked up at her and chuckled nervously. Great, so not only was I the son of a Titan, but I was the son of the Titan that broke everything.

"Destruction AND peace. That's nice." I said quietly. She moved a little closer to me.

"Did you not know?" I shook my head. "Well, at least you don't have to meet him. He's never around. He and Krios are, to an extent, in charge of this."

"I thought Kronos—" She clapped a hand over my mouth.

"Kronos isn't included within this. He's too far scattered at this point, and beyond that, he had his chance. Two of them, in fact. Krios and your dad didn't want him included." I nodded, slightly relieved. I had heard stories about Kronos and let's just say he wasn't exactly a mall Santa. "There are rumors of Kronos having a kid out there, but nothing has materialized."

"Isn't that a scary idea…" I mumbled, taking a deep breath. She laughed and then started walking toward a larger circle of tents.

"Hey, I should go get back to training. Your tent is the one with the orange flag in the front." She said with a smile. "It was nice meeting you, Peter. If you have any more questions, come and find me." She smiled and I nodded before heading to my tent.


	23. Chapter 23

I navigated my way toward my tent. It felt odd being here, but I needed to keep my cool if I wanted to survive. I was on thin ice right off the bat due to the fact that I was detrimental to the cause. I had ruined the collection of the Titans. For Camp Half Blood, that was a good thing. I was worried what the people back at camp had to be thinking. They had already lost people and now they lost three more.

As I thought about all of this, some things started to come together for me. It made sense that I wasn't allowed in the cabins. The security sensed a titan or at least something like it. I'm not sure that necessitated me getting struck by lightning, but beggars can't be choosers. It also made sense that they would send me on this quest. Assuming they didn't anticipate me switching sides, all they knew was that there were campers disappearing and hopefully, I would be one of them.

The more I thought about that, the madder I got. What kind of place does that? It made sense for me. I didn't belong, but there's no reason Jillian and Walker should have gone and been thrown into the line of fire like that. Walker…As much as he and I didn't get along, he didn't deserve that. Stabbed in the back like that. And by my own brother, it turns out. That's not exactly helpful to soothing my guilt.

I didn't get to think much longer because as I was entering the Perses tent, the door swung open and I came face to face with my aforementioned brother. He stood in front of me, looking me in the eye. You know, sometimes there's that person that people say looks like you, but you can't see it? That wasn't the case here. Lee looked a lot like me. His hair was shorter, but it was the same color. I was a little bit taller, but he easily outmuscled me by 50 pounds or more.

That probably said more about me than it did him.

"Just because Krios cleared you and you got yourself a sword, doesn't mean you're gonna be welcome here." He said, jabbing his finger into my chest. "I'm going to be watching you like a hawk."

"Good. Maybe you'll learn something." I shot back, standing up straight to emphasize my height advantage. He fumed, glaring up at me before someone behind me called his name. He shoved past me and I stood there for a moment before walking into the tent.

It wasn't very big, but it didn't need to be. There were three beds in the whole thing. I was alone in the tent. I could tell that one of the beds was Lee's. Not that it had pictures or anything up on the walls, but the corner of the tent was a mess. On the other side of the tent were two other beds, one which was a bare mattress with a bedroll on it along with some familiar other items. I walked over and found my wallet with nothing missing and my slingshot, thankfully untouched. I spun it on my finger once then slipped it into my pocket. I knew it didn't stand up to the sword on my belt that I could actually use, but it was nice to have. It felt a little comforting.

Under my personal effects was a dark grey t-shirt with a simple logo on it that said 'Camp Golden Age.' I set that aside then quickly made my bed. I say quickly made my bed, but I more just kind of…threw the sheets on. It was no marine barracks job, I'll tell you that. I heard the door open as I was setting my pillow at the head of my bed and I rolled my eyes expecting Lee, but when I turned around I saw a girl. She looked a little bit younger than me, but I could still see our dad's features in her. She looked at me for a long moment then looked down at the piece of paper in her hand.

"Umm…Wow. Sorry. I'm not always this awkward. I'm Alicia. I'm supposed to give this to you. It's your daily schedule." She said, handing it to me. "Memorize it soon. Also, I'm supposed to tell you to report to the infirmary after dinner." I nodded and glanced down at my schedule.

"Thanks, Alicia." I said, setting my schedule down on my bed. "So, tell me about yourself, Alicia. I'd like to get to know my family." She looked a little hesitantly at me then walked over to her bed and sat down.

"What do you want to know?"

"Umm...anything. According to the schedule, dinner isn't for another 45 minutes, so I have time to kill." I chuckled and she nodded.

"I'm Alicia. I'm from Nevada. My mom is…was…a dancer." She said with a sigh. "I was living with my aunt until I was 7 and then I was brought here by Dan and Amy. They're the generals for Asteria and Pallas. I've been here for 5 years now."

"What happened to your mom?" I asked quietly, leaning towards her a little bit. I could tell that my question caught her off guard.

"She was killed when I was 5. They found her body in an alley behind a casino." She said quietly.

"I'm so sorry, Alicia."

"Thanks." She said after a long pause. "Lee told me to not get emotional about this stuff, but…I don't know. It's tough."

"You're a 12 year old girl. I mean, no offense, but it would be weird if you weren't upset about this stuff." I said with a shrug. She smiled.

"How about you?"

"My mom was a boxer and MMA fighter." I said with a nod. "I lived with her until I got brought to the wrong camp and then I was brought here."

"Oh, right. You were brought to—" she stopped and then nodded. She leaned toward me a little bit. "What's it like?" She asked.

"What's what like?"

"Living a normal life. Sorry. Not the other camp. I'm sure that must have been horrible." I raised an eyebrow at her, but then looked down at my feet.

"Uhh…I mean, it was okay. I was bullied a lot." She nodded.

"I'm just curious. My aunt never really let me do much and my mom was never home. I've never really known what it's like. Very few people here at Camp do know." She said quietly. "Maybe that's why you're so nice…" I laughed.

"Maybe. It seems like a rough life to grow up in. Maybe someday you'll get to leave and live a normal life again." Her face fell and she shook her head.

"We're not allowed to leave…We go on runs for missions or to scout or for supplies and things like that, but…no one has been able to leave and just…go back to a normal life." She said with a sigh.

"Why? Why all of this? I mean, the Titans have lost twice. Why keep trying this?"

"They want to restore the Golden Age." She said with a deep breath. "Before Zeus overthrew Kronos, humans were…happy. Things were peaceful and prosperous. This was the Golden Age. But when the war between the gods and the Titans broke out then it had an effect on the humans. Humans went to war with each other and things were never the same."

I thought about what she was saying. It made sense. As much as all of this seemed crazy, it made sense. I had been in the mindset that Kronos was this bad guy, because he was terrible to his kids and he was eating them, but if he was doing it to protect humans, then…what was so wrong with that?

"I didn't know that." I said quietly. "I always just kind of assumed that the gods were doing the right thing by getting back at their father." Alicia shook her head.

"But that's all it was. Revenge. The Titans wanted to keep the peace with the humans, but the gods ruined it." I nodded and picked at a spot on my jeans. "that's why I figured it must have been horrible at the other camp."

"Yeah." I murmured. "It was…It's uhh…Horrible. Everything is so separated and there's so much conflict within the Camp. I'm glad I got out."

"I'm glad you did too. I hated being here with Lee by myself."

"I can imagine. What's his story anyway?"

"He's been here for most of his life. He's one of the strongest in the camp, but he lets his temper get in the way a lot." She said, her voice quiet. "He's never met our dad either and that really gets under his skin."

"So, he's the fifth one out. If that's the case, I'm not sure I want to meet him." I said quietly. "I'm not sure how fatherly the Titan of destruction would be." She laughed quietly and nodded.

"That's true. I've never met him, but I'm okay with it. I just don't know what I would really gain." There was a long pause between us and I checked the time, seeing that it was time for dinner. "We should get going. I'll show you the way." She said, grabbing her jacket off her bed and then heading out of the tent. I followed her closely toward the large castle. As we walked, I couldn't help, but notice all the stares that I was receiving. It made sense. I'm sure my arrival was less than typical. As we walked to the castle, I looked over toward the jail, thinking about Artie and Jillian. I needed to get them out and we needed to get back to camp…right?


	24. Chapter 24

The food was disgusting. I'm almost positive that it was several packages of military rations that were all mixed together into one big slop pile which was then served up to anyone who came which was everyone because everyone was hungry. From the mess hall, I could see into the throne room where a table had appeared for the titans. They were eating what looked like barbecue and other food that looked like heaven compared to the food I was eating.

I sat next to Alicia and that was most of the time. We were at the end of one table and were only joined when there was no more room at any other table. Polly and Titus were the only people that I recognized. As I talked and got to know these people, it upset me a little bit to realize that these people were the same people that I was targeting as the enemy. I was told that titans were bad and they killed a lot of people, but if there was an option of restoring peace to the world…Well, I'd have to pick the Titans in this race.

Titus despite his scowl and his mountain-ness was actually pretty funny. Not in a witty funny way, but funny in a bad jokes way. And I already knew that I liked Polly. These people were the same people that Camp Half-Blood was warned about. The same guy who told a 4th grade level knock-knock joke and laughed his ass off was supposed to be some horrible death machine? And the girl who snorts when she laughs is supposed to be the girl that kills thousands? I wasn't buying it.

I was somewhat satisfied with how it went. Not that the food ended up being really good, but I was starting to make some friends. I had to remind myself to keep an eye out for escape plans, but I needed to make sure that I was trusted before I could go snooping around the camp. At least, I figured that. What was sad was at that rate I was going, I wasn't sure I was going to want to leave.

I know it was horrible to think that, but…I had a family here. I had friends here. People that didn't look at me like I was going to kill them. People that, once they got past the fact I used to be on the other side, saw me like one of them. I knew that Lee and Alicia could train me to use my powers better than anyone in Camp Half Blood could. And here, they had weapons I could use. It was already much better than what I had at Camp Half-Blood.

After dinner, Alicia led me out of the mess hall which was off the left hallway. This castle really was enormous and I was a little shocked how it was that they were supposed to be able to pick up and move quickly. She led me further down the hallway into another door which had several beds and a couple people walking around, checking the dozen or so people lying in the beds.

I didn't know what I was there for, but Alicia got the attention of someone.

"Peter, this is Laurie. She's going to take care of you. I need to go to training." She nodded at me then hurried out of the infirmary. I watched her go then turned to Laurie. She was somewhat plain looking, but she had long curly black hair and dark eyes.

"Hi, I'm Laurie. You must be one of the newbies." She said with a smile. "I'm one of the main…doctors, if you will." I shook her hand and she reached into her jacket and took out a scalpel. I stepped back and put my hands up.

"Whoa! I really hope that's for a hair sample." I said, looking around. She chuckled and shook her head.

"Sorry, but if you haven't noticed, we have marks here." She rolled up her sleeve and showed her forearm where there was the mark of a feather quill. I looked with interest until I realized that it wasn't a tattoo. It was a brand.

I kind of figured that it was going to be a little tougher than Camp Half-Blood, but I didn't really imagine this.

"Umm…So, my uhh…I'm getting a mark." I said a little nervously. She nodded.

"Unfortunately, with you it won't be so simple. We usually brand the campers, but we can't really do that with you."

"And that's where the scalpel comes in." I said quietly. I took a deep breath, dreading the idea of her carving some sort of 'mark' on me. "I uhh…I don't mean any offense by this, but…you're…17? 18?"

"18."

"And I'm to trust you with carving my arm like a Thanksgiving turkey?"

"Well, I've read all the books that a third year college student would read and I've memorized them cover to cover." She said with a smile. "I know the human body down to the cellular level and I've done this dozens of times."

"How does all of that fit into one head?" I asked with a chuckle. She giggled and blushed a little bit.

"Well, when your mom is the titaness of memory, you have a way with these things. Now, just sit down and this will be over before you know it." I nodded and then carefully sat down. She brought over a small cart which I set my arm on. She sat down across from me and carefully ran her fingers along my arm.

"So, am I going to get one of those fancy feathers?" I asked, closing my eyes as I felt her cut into my arm.

"Nope. You'll be getting a dog paw. Perses was associated with dogs. His dad was the ram. Astraeus, his brother, your uncle, was associated with horses. Pallas, your other uncle was associated with goats."

"There you go. Showing off that bigger on the inside brain of yours." I said with a smile. She laughed quietly and I looked down to see the blood pouring down my arm. I inhaled sharply and looked away.

"You're handling this pretty well." She said with a smile.

"Well, you know…" I started, shrugging lightly. "I've got a really high tolerance for pain or whatever." I bit my lip gently as she finally stopped.

"All done." She said, placing a pad of gauze over it. I placed my hand over it and winced a little bit. "It'll hurt for a little bit, but we need to keep it open, so it scars well."

"Well, thanks, I suppose. For being gentle." I laughed and then took off the gauze as Laurie placed a new pad of gauze then bandaged it. "Come back to me for the next couple days. Eventually, I'll give you some nectar and it'll heal up."

"Won't that—"

"The longer a wound stays open, the greater it will scar." She said with a nod. I nodded back with a small smile on my face. "Alright. Now get to bed. You've got a long day tomorrow."

"Okay, mom!" I said with a roll of my eyes. "Geeze!" She laughed and nudged my arm.

"It's good to have you here, Peter." She said as I stood up. "Not many people here are ones for humor."

"Well, according to a lot of people neither am I." I chuckled and bowed slightly to Laurie before leaving the infirmary.

I headed out of the castle and looked around the camp. I could feel the pain pulsing through my arm, but I tried to ignore it. I decided to head along the side of the castle. I knew that sneaking around like this was risky. Any suspicion was raised and I was going to be killed. I moved alongside the castle and to the back. I could see the stables before I was actually behind the castle. It was a big building and as I got closer, I could hear the sound of movement from within. I walked inside. All I could see were griffins. Big monsters with head of an eagle and the body of a lion, but with big wings. They were quiet until I walked in. They didn't flip out like the pegasi did back at Camp Half-Blood, but they did get up to see what was going on.

I looked in all the stalls and saw a lot of griffins. There were some pegasi mixed in, but it was mostly griffins. I walked down the aisles when I heard a loud whinny right next to me. I stopped and looked over to see Epona.

"Hey, they got you…" I said quietly, walking up and patting his nose. It shook my hand off then hit me in the arm with his snout. I backed off, but laughed a little bit. "Hey, no need to be fussy." I said, nudging him back. I leaned on the wall across from Epona and looked at him. It made me think about how easy it would be to leave. I could just fly away. Take my chances. Maybe I would go back to Camp Half-Blood. Maybe I wouldn't. Right now, I didn't mind being here.


	25. Chapter 25

I didn't think that three days would pass as quickly as I thought. I went to bed that night after the stable and was woken up bright and early by Alicia who walked with me to breakfast. After that was training, training, and more training.

Camp Half-Blood prepared demigods for life as a demigod. How to fight. How to survive. How to thrive. And it did all of this, while still appearing to be a camp. Despite the weapons training, you could have fun there.

Camp Golden Age didn't bother much with pretense. We were trained, not to survive, but to conquer. The amount of people that I saw sent off to the infirmary was far more than I ever saw at Camp Half-Blood. The training was harder and more ruthless and if you failed, there were consequences. My mark wasn't the only scar that I had now.

On the other side of this very violent coin was that I had improved in nearly every aspect. I could feel myself getting stronger. My work with a sword, while still not great was better. And with the help of Alicia, I had nearly mastered my ability with lava. It seemed that no one else could help me with my other powers.

Polly talked about all of the powers the same, though. That if you thought it, you could do it as long as you were strong enough. I figured that with enough work, I could get my other powers down too.

"I never get tired of seeing that." Alicia said with a smile. I stood there in the arena, a soot mark in front of me from the lightning bolt that I had guided there only a moment prior.

"Well, unfortunately, that's the one that I have down the least…" I said, rubbing my chest, my heart pounding a little harder at the memory of the high voltage welcome wagon Zeus had given me.

"Peter, the things I've seen you do in only three days is just blowing my mind." Alicia said with a laugh. "I mean, I've seen you do things that I didn't think a child of Perses could even do."

"You can't…do storms or earthquakes or lightning?" I asked. She shook her head. "I just figured that destruction had many different vehicles and we just had a choice of ride."

"Well, maybe you do. Lee and I only have the lava." I looked at her for a long moment then nodded. I carefully sheathed my sword then ran my fingers along the raised scar on my forearm. It had closed and I hadn't gotten completely used to it just yet. "Alright. Time for patrol. We have the east side this time."

I groaned a little as I started walking toward the exit. "So boring…" I mumbled with a smile at Alicia. She rolled her eyes and swatted my arm.

"Come on. This is the easy route." We walked out of the arena which was another name for the cleared out circle of trees that was next to the castle. A lot of the training went on there.

We headed back across the front of the castle. I could see the prison on this side and it made me realize how long I had been here. I didn't even know if Jillian was still alive. I stared at my feet at the realization.

"Get back here, you son of a bitch!" I looked up at the sound of commotion. I saw a guy running past us and then I saw Samantha running quickly after, rapidly gaining on him.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked quietly to Alicia. She sighed.

"Battle for generalship." She said quietly. The guy turned around and drew two daggers and then charged at Samantha. "They happen almost every day in Menoetius tent." Samantha was holding a spear. She blocked his two knives and then spun him around before jabbing the spear downward through his spine and out his chest, leaving him limply hanging, his knives dropping to the ground.

"Why did she kill him?" I asked in surprise. I was about to run forward, but Alicia stopped me.

"When someone challenges for Generalship, it's seen as a personal attack. It doesn't matter whether it is or not, it's an insult to the current general's pride and integrity and it means a fight to the death." She explained as we watched Samantha collect the knives and start walking back toward camp, leaving the body there to rot. "Poor Calvin…" She said quietly. "Come on. There's nothing we can do." I looked at Calvin as we walked past and I shook my head, trying to forget about the fact that I just saw someone get slaughtered right in front of me.

The rest of the patrol was nothing to write home about and I spent most of it trying to not show how anxious I was to get to the prison.

"Can we really spare fights to the death? Aren't we kind of limited as is?" I asked right outside of the prison.

"We're bringing in new people nearly every day. We got another Titan back this morning and we're managing to recruit some of the older gods to our cause." Alicia said with a nod. "I'm not saying I agree with it, but we can afford it." I sighed as we opened the door to the jail. The two of us walked in and walked down the hall.

I remembered being there originally and I moved a little bit quicker to the cells. As I got closer, I could hear voices and I felt myself relax a little when I recognized one of the voices as Jillian's. I could see Artie's face next to the bars of his cells and once I was close enough, I could see him. I turned and saw Jillian in the back of the cell. I locked eyes with her and she opened her mouth to speak, but when she noticed Alicia, she closed again.

"Peter. We were just talking about you." She said, her voice low. I tried not to think about the inflection in her words. I didn't want to know if she was mad at me. Well, of course she was mad at me. I abandoned her. "Well, your mom more specifically."

"Jillian was praising your mom's fighting ability." Artie added behind me. I nodded, my eyes still on Jillian.

"I was talking about her fights as champion. When she kept on the offensive the whole time. Didn't wait for an opportunity, but made her own." She said, clearing her throat at me.

"Listen, just quiet down in there." Alicia said, knocking on the bars. I watched as Jillian took the toothpick out from behind her ear and turned it over in her fingers.

"You forgot about her fights against Cavallo. Cavallo was younger and faster, so my mom waited. Bided her time until she finally got that opening. Then she went all-in." I said, taking a step toward the bars. "Those are my favorite fights." I nodded and Jillian sighed before tucking the toothpick behind her ear again. I felt another hint of relief then backed away, looking back at Artie then placing my hand on my sword. "Stick around, prisoners." I said before heading out of the prison.

"Oh, visiting your friends?" I looked up and saw Lee approaching. I rolled my eyes and glanced at Alicia. "I wonder what Krios would think about you—"

"Doing my job?" I interrupted. "I have patrol, now." I said, slipping my schedule out of my pocket. "That includes checking on the prisoners." I started to walk away, but Lee stopped me, placing a hand on my chest.

"I am still your general and I have had enough of your attitude! You will treat me with respect." He said, looking up at me.

"You want respect? Go earn it. Until then, there's always Aretha Franklin." I said, pushing past him. He glared at me as I walked by. I waited until I was a few feet away before I looked over at Alicia. I tried to hide my smile until we were over by the tents again when both of us burst out laughing.

"That was AWESOME." She said quietly. "Until then, there's always Aretha Franklin." She repeated and then shook her head. She fell silent for a long moment then looked up at me. "Peter, you should challenge to be general." I looked at her in surprise.

"Are you kidding?" I said, shaking my head. "Alicia, I've been here three days. Lee has been here years." I turned away and started heading toward the Perses tent.

"Peter, everyone hates Lee. None of the generals can stand him. Everyone likes you. Except Lee. Maybe Samantha. In three days, you're already better with your powers than I am and by the end of the week, you'll be a better fighter." She said, walking close next to me.

"Don't be ridiculous. You realize what this means, right? You building me up like this isn't going to mean anything when he's trying to kill me." I stopped and turned to Alicia. "Just stop. I'm not going to do it." Alicia fell silent as we walked into the tent.

"Just…think about it, okay? Give it some time." She said before heading to her bed.

I didn't know at the time how much time was some in that context. It ended up being not a lot. It was the eighth day I had been there. I hated to admit it, but rescuing Jillian and getting back to Camp Half-Blood wasn't really on my mind as much. It really only happened when I went to the prison and I was starting to go on patrol less and practice in the arena more.

Alicia had gotten Polly and Titus on the side of me challenging to be a general. They were both taking my patrol shifts for me and helping me train. I had to say that this special treatment was really helping and by the end of training on my eighth day at Camp Golden Age, I could take out Polly and Alicia at the same time.

"That's lunch!" Titus said with a laugh, walking over to me. He clapped me hard on the back as I caught my breath, Alicia and Polly both looking up at me from the ground. I sheathed my sword and then offered my hand to Polly who let me pull her to her feet. She stood and moved a little close to me, her hand lingering in mine.

"Good fight, ladies." I said, stepping away from Polly, my hand letting go of hers.

"Oh, please. You kicked our butts." Alicia said with a chuckle, picking up her knife.

"I can't thank you guys enough for helping me train." I said quietly.

"Anytime.." Polly said quickly, stepping toward me again. I blushed a little bit then cleared my throat.

"And as much as I really do appreciate all of this, there is still no way that I'm going to challenge for Generalship." I finished and Titus groaned.

"Come on, dude! You've gotta be kidding." He said with a sigh. "Okay, Polly has beaten Lee by herself and you just took out Polly and one other person."

"I've never beaten you."

"You got pretty close yesterday." He laughed a little bit. "I mean, do you think I just shrugged off the lava to the face?"

"Well, since I was pretty much passed out by the time you won and you were walking circles around me; I figured I didn't make much of a dent." I waited for a response from Titus, but he could think of anything. "I'm not going to risk my life for this. Besides, Lee is already looking for a reason to kill me. I don't need to give him one."

"I guess…" Alicia said quietly, heading out of the arena. I looked at her and then threw my hands up in the air.

"Fine! I'll think about it…" I mumbled. "Now, can we just let it go, for now?"

"Thank you, Peter." Alicia said with a sigh.

"And actually, I hate to put the pressure on, but there's a general's meeting tomorrow." Titus added. I took a deep breath.

"So, you've finally convinced me to think about challenging someone to a fight to the death and now you're giving me a deadline?" I asked, shaking my head. "Fine. I'll think about it, but you much just have to deal with Lee for a couple more weeks." I said before starting to head out of the arena again.

"Thanks, Peter. That's really all we can ask for." Polly said, catching up to me and taking my hand. I looked down at our hands together then back up at her.

"Such small requests…" I said, laughing nervously. She laughed with me and I glanced back at Titus and Alicia who were letting me walk off with Polly.

"Come on. Let's go to lunch." She said before hurrying toward the castle, dragging me along with her. I followed her and she kept a tight grip on my hand, not stopping until we were right outside the mess hall. We went through the line together and found a spot next to each other at a table off to the side. I liked Polly. She was pretty and funny and nice, but there was no way that I could enter into a relationship with her. Especially since I could leave at virtually any moment.

On top of that, I'd feel horrible if I did. Things were already confusing enough with Jillian and Lindsey. I didn't need this whole Romeo and Juliet situation to get too far. I tried to come with a way that I could attempt to nip this sticky situation in the bud, but short of killing her or being a total dickhead to her, nothing was really coming to mind. And really if I killed her that would make me a total dickhead.

"Peter, I'm really, really glad you came to camp." She said with a smile. "It feels like it's been so long, but it's only been 8 days. You were like…a stick person when you came here and now you've got a little bit of muscle on you." She looked at me and bit her lip. "It looks good on you." I looked at her and tried to get the 'I'd look a lot better on you' line out of my head.

"Well, you and Alicia and Titus are to thank for that." I said with a nervous chuckle. She shook her head.

"No, Peter. Listen, when I met you I kind of figured you'd be a lot like Lee. Impatient. Arrogant."

"A total dildo."

"Right. But you're patient and careful and that's why you've improved so greatly. Because you don't get frustrated."

"Well, years of being addicted to caffeine and video games can do that, I suppose?" I said with a shrug. She laughed and then licked her lips slightly, looking at me. I tried to eat quickly and I managed to be done before Polly was.

"I'm going to try and catch a nap before tactical training. I'll see you around." I said quickly, not letting her stop me as I grabbed my dishes and put them away then headed out of the mess hall. Now I had time to be alone and really think about things. This place was good for me, but something just didn't sit right. I mean, killing Lee would be a win for Camp Half-Blood, but at the same time, killing is killing. It doesn't matter who it is. The fact that the people at Camp Golden Age were so readily willing to kill scared me a little bit.

My thinking time was cut short when I heard Lee's voice behind me.

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen." He said, standing on one of the tables. "One of our teams traveled to Nevada in hope of finding another hole to the underworld. While there, they came across several demigods and none of them saw us coming!" He shouted, prompting applause from the crowd. He held up a ripped piece of an orange t-shirt then caught my eyes. "Peter, would you like to say some things on behalf your fallen brethren?" I stepped toward him, trying to not show how angry I was.

"No, but I would like to say something on behalf of everyone here." I said, drawing my sword. "I challenge you for general ship!"


	26. Chapter 26

"I challenge you for generalship!" I shouted, drawing my sword. The crowd fell quiet and then erupted with the sound of people standing up. As soon as I said it, I was screaming in my head. What in the world was I thinking. As soon as people started moving, I saw Lee sprinting toward me with his sword.

"Get out of the castle!" Polly shouted. I took off immediately out of the castle. I pushed through the crowd and got outside just as everyone scattered. I tried to think of some place where I would have an advantage, but I couldn't really get help from anyone and Lee knew this place better than me.

I stood, facing the castle slowly backing away as I watched Lee come out. He had his sword drawn and pretty soon there was a large circle of people around us. Lee was smiling at me, most likely happy he was going to finally get to kill me.

"A whole week and you're just now finally revealing your true colors, huh?" He said with a smile, approaching me. "Does it anger you that we killed some of your demigod friends?" It did anger me.

"No, I've just had enough of seeing that dumbass grin on your face whenever you think you're winning." I responded, standing a little straighter.

"And what if I told you that I sent some people to go and torture that Ares girl again?"

"What do I care? There you go with that stupid smile, again. The only good thing about that smile is watching it go away when you realize that I beat you. Again and again and again and again." I gripped my sword a little tighter and quickly moved to dodge a few quick strikes from Lee. He sent some lava at my feet and I quickly lifted it, sending it back at his face. He dodged around it and blocked the slash that I had aimed at his face. We stopped and slowly circled each other.

I took a second and looked around. I was shocked at how many people were actually watching. There were guards who had taken a break from their patrols. Everyone in the cafeteria. Even a couple people who looked like they had been woken up to watch.

"To think that you could become general…And then maybe we should gather around a fire and sing some songs? And maybe we should just talk about our problems. That'll get things done." Lee said, charging me. "You need to break a few eggs to make an omelet, Peter." He said as our swords banged together. I kicked him away and I launched a wave of lava at him which he sliced through, following up with another charge.

"Well, you can break some eggs without being a total dick!" I said, dodging his sword and going for a strike of my own which he blocked. I launched a few more balls of lava at him, managing to catch him in the chest with one which knocked him back a couple steps. I charged, but he threw some lava at my feet which tripped me up. I fell and landed hard on my chest then grabbed my sword and tried to scramble to my feet.

"It's funny, Peter. We're immune to fire." He said. I tried to move, but my feet were stuck. I looked back and saw that the lava was growing and it soon was starting to cover my body. "However, we are still half-human in that we need oxygen." The lava grew and stretched until it circled around me and quickly made a dome around me, covering me completely, lava swirling all above me. "By my counts, you don't have long." He said with a chuckle before the lava solidified into solid rock.

Everything seemed to grow still. I could hear the faint sound of commotion from outside the dome, but that disappeared soon enough. Either people giving up on me or just my hearing growing bad from the lack of air. I tried to throw my back into the dome, but it was too heavy. My feet were still trapped in the lava. As long as he was keeping it a rock, I couldn't really turn it back into lava. And the air was already thin enough that I didn't want to exert myself too much more.

As I tried to think of something to do, I thought about Alicia. She would no doubt be punished for siding with me. Polly and Titus stood more of a chance, but even then…

I closed my eyes and tried to think of some way that I could get out of this. Some way that I could get out of all of this. Out of this dome. Out of being killed. Out of becoming general. I shouldn't even be here anyway. For some reason, I saw a picture of Camp Half-Blood in my mind. Like it was put there by something or someone who was taking my brain on a joyride.

That was it, though. I shouldn't be here. Who got me out of the horrible school? It wasn't this camp. It was Camp Half-Blood. Who welcomed me even when I didn't really belong? It wasn't the camp that carved me like a Thanksgiving turkey or the camp that killed Walker. It was Camp Half-Blood. This was the time to escape. This had to be it.

I took a short breath then started a wind current around me. It swirled and swirled and it wasn't very powerful at first, but it soon lifted the dome enough to let some more air in and soon it grew big enough that it shattered the dome to pieces. I quickly sent the rocks toward Lee and then let the vortex lift me up.

"I think I'm gonna beat you again, Lee!" I shouted as I added lava into the vortex, the giant orange tornado completely encompassing me and lifting me higher and higher. I looked down and saw all of the campers who were quickly backing away and I could see Lee trying to hit me with lava, but it was all just sucked into the tornado. Soon enough, I was higher than castle and I stepped out of the tornado on top of one of the walls. I flicked my wrist and the whirlwind moved away from the castle and started moving on its own.

I turned and started running toward one of the sides of the castle. I looked over and could see the prison down below. All of this commotion had started to tire me out, but I still had enough energy to jump off the castle and use some wind to lower me to the ground. I sheathed my sword and took off in a mad sprint toward the prison.

I could hear screams inside and my heart fell a little bit, trying to move faster. I burst through the prison door and tackled the first guy I saw. I recognized him as Shane, but I quickly hit him with my sword to knock him out. I looked into Jillian's cell and saw her tied to a chair with Anya and Samantha leaning over her. They quickly turned when Shane went down.

"You…Peter!" Samantha shouted. I dodged just in time as a knife came zipping toward me, grazing my temple. I flinched back as blood started to leak down my cheek and I saw as Anya was approaching me with a dagger. Then there was a loud hum and suddenly Anya and Samantha started screaming as they were swarmed by bees, stinging them over and over again. They quickly ran from the prison as the swarm followed them. I looked over at Artie who gestured for me to get moving. I quickly melted the lock on his door then hurried over to Jillian who must have passed out.

"Take the toothpick." I said to Artie, taking the toothpick from her ear. "Tap it a couple times on your palm and it'll turn into a weapon. I don't know which one. Just hurry up." I said, picking up Jillian carefully. I looked back at Artie was holding a bow and had a quiver on his back. He then lead the way out of the prison. "Head to the stables."

"The griffins will never let us take them."

"There's Pegasi there. We'll take those." I said, as we exited the jail. We made a line for the stables, keeping a look out for anyone who might spot us. I looked and saw that my orange tornado was getting pretty small. They had to know that I wasn't in it anymore. "You couldn't have done that bee thing earlier?" I said quietly to Artie. He chuckled a little bit.

"And then what? Been a really big nuisance to everyone here, but still be stuck in that cell?"

"Yeah. Fair enough." I said with a chuckle as I we got close to the stables.

"They're escaping!" I heard someone shout as we walked in.

"We'll never get out in time, Peter. They'll have this place surrounded in seconds." Artie said as we ran down the aisle, stopping in front of Epona and another Pegasus in the stalls. Thankfully, I recognized it as Jillian's.

"Well, when faced with a rock and a hard place, just find an option C, right?" I said with a nervous chuckle as I carefully placed Jillian on Epona's back. I climbed up and then grabbed my sword, looking for another way out. "You can't summon another big swarm of bees can you?"

"One large enough to take out this whole camp? Yeah, probably not." He said as we trotted the pegasi out of their stalls. I could see them coming into the stable at each end and then I looked up and quickly shot a large ball of flame at the ceiling. It exploded and spooked some of the griffins which took off into through the new hole in the ceiling. Artie and I followed suit, lifting off and quickly gaining altitude.

"Wait up. I gotta stop at my tent." I shouted to Artie as I made a line for the Perses tent.

"Seriously?! Priorities, man!"

"Hey, I've got a bad case of Indiana Jones syndrome." I mumbled as I quickly set down. I hurried in and grabbed my slingshot then hurried out again, hopping back onto Epona and taking off into the sky.


	27. Chapter 27

I'd like to say that Artie and I used our spectacular flying skills and maneuvering to make a skillful escape. That we made it to camp quickly. Jillian went to the infirmary and they had her better and back to perfect health in a matter of seconds. We organized an army then marched onto Camp Golden Age. We attacked and defeated them all and sent the Titans down to Tartarus for good.

There was a large celebration in my honor, mostly, but also in Jillian's and Artie's and no demigods died at all and all threats to peace were vanquished. Zeus decided to retire and I took his spot up in Olympus as King of the gods and master of all sorts of awesome stuff. I brought my mom up and made her the goddess of Mixed Martial Arts and overall asskickery.

And everybody lived happily ever after.

I'd like to say that ANY of that happened. Unfortunately, it didn't.

We got lucky. The smoke from the stable and the griffins flying around crazily gave us enough cover to get up into the sky, but that didn't stop several of the campers from wrangling some of their griffins and taking off after us. We tried to fly as fast as we could, but the pegasi were stiff from being cooped up and if I flew too fast then Jillian would fall. Which would be bad.

The fight and now the escape were taking the toll on me and I knew that I didn't stand a chance of fighting off any of our followers.

"Just keep going. They're not going to want to follow us all the way back to camp." Artie said and I nodded, glancing back. I quickly counted about eight of them, but with number of other griffins in the air, that number was probably wrong. I nudged Epona who moved a little faster, but that didn't help much when I heard and saw an arrow whiz by my head. I looked over at Artie who turned and fired a few arrows back, but they were easily dodged. I managed to fire a few shots from my slingshot, but all that did was upset a griffin.

"Any ideas?" I asked, looking over at Artie who took a deep breath and shook his head.

"I'm drawing a blank." I looked around quickly and shook my head, hating the idea that was slowly forming in my head. I was already doing better than I ever had before and I had to credit Camp Golden Age for that. I hadn't passed out since I got there.

"Okay. This is a horrible plan. Follow my lead." I told Artie before gaining altitude. We were already high enough, but there were clouds in the sky and I wanted to become familiar with them.

"That's a great way to secure my confidence in you, Peter." He said as he followed me.

"Okay, well, putting confidence in me is a pretty bad idea at the start, so just get that out of your head now." I said as I closed my eyes, focusing the clouds to thicken, a small storm starting to brew. I could feel it draining my power, but I didn't have much of a choice. I couldn't go back there now and dying was not on my agenda.

Artie and I entered the clouds, sticking close together and then leveling out, moving within the cloud cover.

"Slow down. Slow down." I whispered to Artie, my breathing a little heavy. A little bit of thunder rolled overhead and I leaned on Epona a little bit, finally letting up my building of the storm. A large bolt of lightning crackled not too far from us and Artie looked at me.

"Please tell me that was you." He said quietly. I shook my head then looked up at the sky, really hoping Zeus wouldn't totally screw us over. We stayed silent for another few moments, slowly moving within the cloud as the storm rumbled around us and soon we heard all of the griffins shoot through the clouds not far from us.

"Anya! Clear it!" I heard through the clouds and soon enough the clouds were split apart, revealing us completely. I quickly spun and called a lightning strike that zapped Anya in the chest, knocking her off her griffin. Artie and I took off after that. There were more lightning strikes behind us, but Artie and I didn't turn back. We just kept flying.

Eventually, we slowed up when we noticed that we were no longer being chased. I was barely staying awake at that point and Epona seemed more and more ragged with each flap of his wings. I looked down at Jillian. She was breathing still, but not much else. I looked over at Artie who looked pretty tired himself.

"Where do you think we are?" I asked him, lowering my altitude a little bit.

"Canada, maybe? Somewhere North." He said with a nod. I nodded back.

"Let's set down for a little bit. I can barely keep my eyes open and Jillian is in rough shape." I said and we both started heading toward the ground. We found a spot near a lake in a small clearing of trees and set down. Epona and the other pegasi walked up and started drinking from the lake. I carefully slipped off and pulled Jillian off, carefully setting her on the ground. "You don't happen to be the son of the god of bees and healing do you?"

"Uh…actually…" Artie said walking over to Jillian. "Beekeeping, shepherding, cheesemaking, olive-growing, and medicinal herbs. I think my dad had some control over the winds, too, but I haven't really been able to do much." He knelt down and I turned my attention to the lake. I splashed some water on my face and took a deep breath, looking into my reflection. I looked exhausted. Which made sense because I felt exhausted.

"How is she?" I asked quietly.

"Breathing. The best I can do is treat some of her wounds and give her something to keep her asleep, so she doesn't wake up until we're back at camp." Artie answered from behind me.

"If only I…I'm….this is my fault." I sighed and turned to the horses. "If hadn't wasted so much time there…"

"Peter, she's going to be fine." Artie said, growing a couple of plants nearby. "And besides, it seems like you needed some of that training." He moved Jillian a little closer to the water. "Jillian told me about you. Can't use swords. Passes out every time you use your powers. Honestly, if you hadn't gotten that training, I would be taking care of both of you."

"I guess you've figured out that I'm a son of a Titan then…"

"Perses?" Artie offered. I nodded. "That'll need to be sorted out when we get back to camp." I paused for a long moment.

"And if I didn't go back to camp?" I asked, taking a deep breath. Artie turned to look at me. "It's not like they're going to welcome me back with open arms. Walker is dead. Jillian is unconscious. You haven't been at camp in a long time and I'm pretty sure the gods know all about who my dad is." I draw my dark grey sword. "I come back with some training and a new sword along with a solid knowledge of the enemy camp? I wouldn't even trust me."

"Peter, I'll tell them what you did. What you had to do."

"You? The guy who has been at the enemy camp longer than I have and whose dad is currently working for the Titans?" I laughed a little nervously. "Artie, come on."

"So…what? You're gonna go back to Camp Golden Age? Or are you just gonna wander around and be no help to anybody?"

"I have always wanted to go to Europe." I said with a sigh. Artie looked at me and shook his head.

"Look, the way I see it is that you had two ways to go. Camp Golden Age or Camp Half-Blood. Now something possessed you to get out of one and that bridge is burned. Do you really want to burn the other and be named an enemy of both?"

"Well—"

"Because that's what you'll be doing. I can try and stop them and Jillian can try to stop them, but if the gods want something done, they have us do it." He said with a nod. "The titans now see you as a threat to their anonymity and they're going to take any chance they can to kill you. One thing the Titans have in common with the gods is their pride and they don't like it when they're shown up."

"Artie…I…" I mumbled, looking down at my feet. "I know. I just…I want to survive. I didn't ask to get thrown into this shit-storm and this is my chance of getting out before I get in too deep." I slipped onto Epona's back.

"Peter!" He said, walking toward me. "Where are you even gonna go? Back to your mom?"

"Nope. I can't." I said with a shrug. "She's in danger now." I turned Epona around. "Look, tell Jillian that…I'm sorry." I looked down at Artie and then at Jillian. "I don't see any other option."

"Peter! Peter!" He shouted, but I didn't stop. I took off into the sky. I didn't really know where I was headed, but I just couldn't go back to Camp Half-Blood.

* * *

><p><em>And that's it! That's all for This is Not MythoMagic 1. I just wanted to thank you all for sticking through to the end of this segment. I say segment because there will be 4 more. I know. You probably don't want to sit through another 4 of these, but if you do let me know. I don't want to write it and put it up here if no one is going to read it. <em>

_Also, leave any comments or questions in the comments and just let me know if you'd be down with reading my writing for a little bit longer. I've already got the next one planned and I'm hoping to start work on the first chapter of _This is Not MythoMagic 2 _very soon._

_Thank you so very very much for reading and commenting. It means a lot to me and I hope to see you all again in TINM2! _


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